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April 2009
Hamilton Farmers Market also includes a harvest of live music
The Hamilton’s Farmer’s Market has announced its music series line up for the 2009 season.
All performances will be 9 to 11 a.m. Saturdays at the Courthouse Square in Hamilton.
Dawn Cooksey: May 30, July 11 and Aug. 15
Gregory B. Albright (above): June 6. July 25 and Aug. 29
John Belanger: June 13 and Sept. 5
Hillary & Rick Wagner, June 20 and Aug. 8
Mark Cormican: June 27 and Sept. 19
John Wolfe: July 3
Prudence Hunt: Aug. 1 and Sept. 12
Papa Joe Kretschmer: Aug. 22
Eric Loy: Sept. 26.
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TweetPyramid Hill declares first Bridal Show a great success
Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park held its first-ever Bridal Show last weekend and filled the park with brides-to-be looking for the perfect wedding.
“It went great,” said organizer Sara Harrison. “The fashion show was beautiful and we awarded prizes throughout the day, along with a grand prize at the end of the day. It was awesome. I heard only compliments about it. Everyone that attended wants us to have another one.”
Harrison said that the park broke it’s one-day attendance record for the spring season that day.
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TweetThe Hamilton Lane Library group discusses ‘Marley & Me,’ May 19
The Hamilton Lane Library’s Great Books Discussion Group will focus on “Marley & Me” by John Grogan, 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 19.
The group meets the third Tuesday of each month. This group is for adults 18 and over, and requires registration. To register or for more information, call (513) 894-7158.
The Hamilton Lane Library is located at 300 N. Third St., Hamilton.
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TweetLisa Biales closes out EntertainmentPLUS series at the Fitton Center, May 2
Singer/songwriter Lisa Biales, 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2, Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton. $15 members, $17 non-members. (513) 863-8873.
The Fitton Center for Creative Arts closes out this season’s EntertainmentPLUS series with a performance by Lisa Biales.
Based in Oxford, Biales is a self-produced artist whose music is played around the world, with five solo albums under her belt, including one for children called “Yellow Shoes,” and three albums of folk songs with the renowned duo Prairie Orchid, which she co-founded in 1991.
Biales touched upon the subject of cancer, death and dying, and the healing benefits of a canine companion in her song “Playing With Angels,” which went to No. 1 in 2008 on the Australian Indie Radio Charts.
Her most recent album, “Hey There,” is a “kind of a mixture of folk, jazzy blues and a couple of a capella songs thrown in for flavor,” she said in an interview after its release last fall.
“It’s all-acoustic, recorded at home. I wanted to have that intimate feeling as if I were sitting in your living room playing, no whistles or bells.”
Her guests for her Fitton Center appearance include violinist Doug Hamilton, member of the Dayton-based ecletic bluegrass Wildwater Band, and Michael G. Ronstadt of the duo Lost In Holland on cello.
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TweetMiami Pulley Bell Tower set for Sunday recitals
A Bicentennial recital series is scheduled at the Pulley Bell Tower.
The recitals will be at 2 p.m. on Sundays, May 17 and 31, June 21 and 28, and July 12 and 26.
University carillonneur Randy Runyon will play for the 30-minute concerts.
The tower is located at the corner of Patterson Ave. (US 27) and Route 73 in Oxford.
The concerts are free and open to the public. For more information, call (513) 529-7592.
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TweetSW Ohio Symphonic band honors MU’s 200th and a fallen soldier at a free concert, May 3
Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 3, Finkelman Auditorium, Miami University Middletown. Free.
The Southwestern Ohio Symphonic Band will honor one of its own, a soldier who died in Iraq, at a free concert, 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Finkelman Auditorium on Miami University’s Middletown Campus.
The concert also features an appearance by Miami University president David Hodge as part of a celebration of the university’s 200th anniversary, according to conductor Chris Brandenburg.
David Shaffer, who is retiring after 11 years as director of the Miami University Marching Band, will be guest conductor for the premiere of his composition “Costa Del Sol.”
The concert will also feature the Shaffer composition “Purple Heart: Faces of Bravery,” which he wrote following the tragic death of 14 Marines linked to the Ohio based 3rd Battalion 25th division on August 3, 2005 in Iraq.
“Lance Crpl. Michael Cifuentes (above) was a Miami Marching Band alumnus that lost his life in the roadside bombing,” Brandenburg said in an e-mail. “Following Mike’s funeral David composed ‘Purple Heart’ with Mike as his inspiration so that all of those lost in the war would not be forgotten.”
Shaffer, a celebrated composer with over 250 original compositions and arrangements in print, has been the recipient of the ASCAP Standard Award in Music Composition for 18 years. Prior to beginning his teaching career at Miami University, Shaffer taught in public schools, including the Hamilton City School District.
The band will also be performing “Cornets Galore” by Edward F. Howard featuring Jack Shoemaker, Matthew Buhl, Tim Nogle, and J. Earl Jones, four members of our trumpet section, Brandenburg said.
Other selections include, “The Moldau” a cycle of symphonic poems by Bedrich Smetana scored by John Cacavas and revised and completed by R. Mark Rogers, selections from “Pineapple Poll,” based on the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan arranged by Charles Mackerras; “Blue Tango” by Leroy Anderson and “Manhattan Beach” by John Philip Sousa.
President Hodge will narrate the band’s performance of “Casey at the Bat,” with text by Ernest Lawrence Thyer and original music composed and arranged by Cincinnati native Steven Reineke.
A free reception will follow the concert in the Finkleman Auditorium’s entry hall.
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TweetRoss High School grad involved in Cleveland theater workshop, gets TV spot
Rachel Jones, a 2008 graduate of Ross High School and a first-year musical theater student at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, has been working with the producers of “[title of show]” for a workshop production at Cleveland’s Playhouse Square this weekend.
She was on local Cleveland television this morning on a promotional appearance:
FULL DISCLOSURE: Rachel is the daughter of your intrepid arts/entertainment reporter….
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Tweet‘Brookville’ author signing May 9 at Books in Shandon
Historian Donald Dunaway will be signing copies and discussing his book “ Brookvillle: A Postcard History ,” 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 9 at Books in Shandon, 4795 Cincinnati-Brookville Rd., Shandon.
SYNOPSIS: Platted in 1808 on a strip of land between the confluence of the East and West Forks of the Whitewater River, Brookville is one of the oldest and most picturesque towns in Indiana. The authors have assembled more than 200 historic postcards, contributed by local residents and collectors, that tell the story of Brookvilles people and places. Many of the scenes depicted in Brookville postcards show homes, busy factories, and rural scenes that have long since disappeared. Browsing through these images gives an indication of the way Brookville used to be. Others scenes are easily recognizable today and show how the citizens of the town have preserved some of its most important landmarks.
For information, call (513) 738-2962.
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TweetRiverdance returns to Cincinnati for a limited “farewell” engagement
“Riverdance,” the thunderous celebration of Irish music, song and dance will play five “Farewell Performances,” May 15-17, at the Aronoff Center as a Fifth Third Bank Broadway Across America Season Special.
“Since 1996, the success of RIVERDANCE in North America has gone beyond our wildest dreams,” said producer Moya Doherty in a press statement. “The fact that the show continues to draw and excite audiences 13 years after its debut in Dublin is a tribute to every dancer, singer, musician, staff and crew member who have dedicated themselves to the show.”
Shows will be 8 p.m. Friday, May 15; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 16; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17.
Tickets range in price from $25-$60 depending on the seat location and performance date, now on sale and may be purchased from an authorized ticket agent online, in person at the Broadway Across America Box Office downtown in the Mercantile Center or by phone at 1-800-982-2787.
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TweetREMINDER: Encore Youth Theatre auditions this weekend…
Young performers encouraged to join Encore Youth Theatre
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TweetA musical look at parenting at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, through
Tonight is opening night for “Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over: Dispatches From the Frontlines of Parenting,” a musical exploration of the fine art of child-rearing, at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati through May 17.
“It starts by talking about the hopes and goals we have as parents-to-be,” said cast member Jessica Hendy, above, who is also mother to 3-year-old Beckett. “We talk about how we’re not going to do what our parents have done and how we’re not going to let our children consume our lives.”
Fat chance.
“It really delves into some of the darker aspects of parenting, too,” she said, “dealing with mental illness, dealing with your children doing the same things you did as a child, how it’s important to realize that your child has surpassed all the dreams and goals you set for them.
“It’s a wonderful journey through the highs and lows of parenting,” Hendy said.
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“Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over,” which made its world premiere at the 2008 Cincinnati Fringe Festival, is a song cycle with no fixed plot or character arc, Hendy said, but many of the tunes tell their own stories and ring true to life.
One of the songs, she said, is written as a series of e-mails a couple sends to friends and family as they go through the ordeal of adopting a child from overseas, and there’s a duet in which two characters talk about the toys they had as a child versus the kinds of things contemporary children are interested in.
Hendy said that some of the songs have “take-aways” that have given her some insight into her own parenting.
“Looking over the latter part of the show makes me think that I have to let Beckett go on his own journey,” she said, “to know that he is going to be hurt, but that he has to make his own decisions.”
Tickets range from $29 to $38 for adults and may be purchased online, by calling the ETC box office at (513) 421-3555, or in person at the ETC box office at 1127 Vine Street.
Special “Rush” tickets are also available for $15, fifteen minutes prior to curtain (subject to availability). More ticket info at the jump….
Press release
From the writers of the smash hit “Ace,” Richard Oberacker and Robert Taylor, comes a charming new musical that takes us on the winding road of parenting, April 29 to May 17, 2009. Having been performed as part of last year’s Fringe Festival, Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over: Dispatches From the Frontlines of Parenting is a delightful and touching series of musical snapshots taken from unexpected angles about the joys and frustrations of every stage of parenting. CCM Drama Department chair Richard Hess directs an outstanding ensemble cast in this full production world premiere.
“I was drawn to the intriguing nature of a song cycle about the role and implications of parenting and how universal that theme is,” explains ETC Producing Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers. “I admired Richard and Rob’s ability to create a piece that was empathetic, sincere, and not overly sentimental. This show was also a remarkable opportunity to put together a terrifically talented performing ensemble,” she concludes.
About the Cast
Kate Wilford (Woman 1) reprises her role from last season’s Fringe Festival production for the world premiere of Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over… at ETC. She returns to ETC’s stage, having last appeared in the world premiere of Wayfarer’s Rest by Joseph McDonough in 2006. Previously at ETC, she has performed in Women of Lockerbie, Death Defying Acts, and Keeping the Faith. This past fall, she appeared as Linda Lohman in New Edgecliff’s production of Death of A Salesman, for which she received an Acclaim Award. She has also performed in Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s productions of The Cherry Orchard, Romeo and Juliet, and All My Sons.
a. Beth Harris (Woman 2) returns to ETC’s stage, having last appeared in the world premiere of Thirty Ghosts. Her other ETC credits include Alice in Wonderland (2003), The Frog Princess (2002), Sleeping Beauty (2000), Cowgirls, and Syncopation. Ms. Harris receive two CEA awards for her performance in Violet and she also appeared in Nite Club Confidential and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2003), both for which she received CEA nominations. This past winter, she appeared in New Stage Collective’s Dead City. Her other regional credits include Schoolhouse Rock Live! and The Gift of the Magi, both for the Arkansas Children’s Theatre.
Jessica Hendy (Woman 3) also returns to ETC after appearing as the agoraphobic Jeannie in last year’s sold-out production of The Great American Trailer Park Musical for which she received an Acclaim Award. She has been seen on Broadway in Aida, CATS, and stood by for the lead roles in Amour. She toured the United States and Canada as Grizabella in CATS, and The Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Pre-Broadway workshops include: AIDA, Dance of the Vampires, and The Molly Maguires. Regionally, her favorites are: Songs For A New World (Helen Hayes Performing Arts Center), Ellen in Miss Saigon at Pittsburg CLO, and North Shore Music Theatre, and Della in The Gift of the Magi at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Ms. Hendy is a graduate from UC’s College Conservatory of Music for Musical Theatre.
Charlie Clark (Man 1) last appeared at ETC in this season’s production of Alice in Wonderland as Tweedledum as well as in this season’s hit musical Grey Gardens as Joseph Patrick Kennedy Jr./Jerry. Mr. Clark also performed in last season’s holiday musical The Frog Princess. Recently, he appeared in The Charlie Clark Show and Don’t Make Me Pull This Show Over: Dispatches From the Frontlines of Parenting, both for the 2008 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. His other credits include Take Me Out, Hello Again, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, See What I Wanna See, The Full Monty, and Sunday in the Park with George.
Alan Kendall (Man 2) performed in last season’s The Great American Trailer Park Musical as tollbooth attendant Norbert. Mr. Kendall is a Cincinnati native and graduate of CCM and has appeared in the New York productions of Annie at Madison Square Garden, Sweeney Todd at New York City Opera, and Look What a Wonder Jesus Has Done for New York Music Festival. National tours include Annie, The Phantom of the Opera, Gypsy, and Anything Goes. His regional credits include The Full Monty (Weston Playhouse), The Most Happy Fella (North Shore Music Theater), Two Cities: The Musical (Stamford Rich Forum), and Carousel (Candlewood Playhouse). His TV, film, and internet appearances include: Law & Order: SVU, Lucky Dog, The Pride of Jesse Hallam, and The Onion News Network.
Production team includes Brian c. Mehring (Resident Scenic & Lighting Designer), Richard J. Sillen (Technical Director), Matthew Hollstegge (Production Coordinator & Master Electrician), Shannon Rae Lutz (Properties Master & Design Assistant), John Curley (Sound Designer), Scot Woolley (Musical Director), and Reba Senske (Costume Designer). The Production Stage Manager is Michael Aaron Jones.
Ticket Information & Parking
Tickets may be purchased online at www.cincyetc.com by calling the ETC box office at (513) 421-3555, or in person at the ETC box office at 1127 Vine Street. Single ticket prices range from $29 to $38 for adults and vary upon day of the week; $16 for children ages 12 and under; senior/student, Enjoy the Arts, and Fine Arts Fund Card discounts available. Special “Rush” tickets are also available for $15, fifteen minutes prior to curtain (subject to availability).
Parking for evening and matinee performances is available directly across the street from the theatre in the Gateway Garage for $2. Patrons may access the garage via the 12th Street entrance. Patrons may also park at the surface lot located at the corners of 12th and Vine Streets; charges for this lot vary.
The 2008-2009 Season Sponsor is the Otto M. Budig Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Charles H. Dater Foundation, the Fine Arts Fund, the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, Michael Lakoff and Mark Sullivan, the Merten Company, National Endowment for the Arts, Ohio Arts Council, Procter & Gamble, and the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Foundation. Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati is a City of Cincinnati Arts Grant Recipient.
Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, a professional Equity theatre, is dedicated to the production and development of new works and works new to the region.
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TweetBlogging for teens program set for Lane Library, May 20
Teens ages 13 to 18 are invited to “Your Blog, Your World,” 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 20 at the Hamilton Lane Library, 300 N. Third St., Hamilton.
Participants will learn about the different blog sites, how to set up an account and more.
Registration is required. For more information, call (513) 894-1409.
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TweetCeramic artist gives demos at Art on Symmes, May 2
John Beasley has been a professional design sculptor for over 20 years, working in a variety of styles and media, but when it came time to establish his own studio, the challenge and affordability of ceramic tile made it a central focus of his current work.
Beasley, owner of Medicine Bluff Studio, will give a demonstration of his work and will show some of his latest designs from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at Art On Symmes in Fairfield.
Beasley, who recently relocated to Cincinnati to be closer to his wife’s family, started his studio in Medicine Park, Okla., just a few miles from Medicine Bluff, a sacred place for the Comanche, he said.
“A fault line runs through there and it looks like a half-dome with a stone-bed creek running beside it that always ran with good, clean water,” he said. “It’s an idyllic little place and since we started off doing Western designs, it seemed like an appropriate name.”
His designs have been produced in bronze, cold cast resins, precious metals and hand made paper, but ceramics has become his specialty, using a variety of techniques that he’s picked up from other areas — including working in the greeting card industry.
“All of my work has been intensely detailed, which is hard to do in ceramic tile,” he said. “You can do everything perfectly but do one thing by accident and you either get something great or you tell yourself you should have been paying more attention.”
Plus, he said, working in ceramics allows him to create art that people can afford.
“I’d go to shows and have all this stuff cast in bronze, and people would come and talk to me about it, but just couldn’t see spending that kind of money,” he said. “In my mind, everybody deserves art.”
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TweetREVISED: Miami U. Choraliers celebrate 100 years
The Miami University Choraliers will welcome over 60 guests artists at a special 100th anniversary concert at 8 p.m. Friday, May 1 at Hall Auditorium.
“The concert is organized into 10 decades referring to the last 100 years of the group, and we will sing songs from the repertoire of each of those decades,” said conductor William Bausano. “We also invited alumnae to come and sing in their representative decade, and so we will have around 60 guest vocalists performing with us at various times, the earliest dating back to the ’60s.”
Miami University president David Hodge will serve as the narrator for the concert, reading prepared text to introduce each of the decades with glimpses of life at Miami, in Oxford and around the country, accompanied by a slide presentation of vintage photos from each era.
All of the guest alumnae will join the Choraliers on stage for the final three songs, two that were written especially for the Choraliers, as well as the Miami University Alma Mater.
The repertoire will also feature two works written for the Choraliers by composers Nicole Dieker (Miami ’04) and by Joan Szymko.
Dieker was a first-year student and a member of the Choraliers when she wrote “I Wish You Peace,” which has become a signature piece for the group, Bausano said, and has been performed at every concert since.
With a gift from Choralier alum Patricia Morrison, Bausano commissioned West Coast-based Szymko, whose work has been performed on Broadway and at the Lincoln Center in Washington, D.C., to compose a work in honor of the anniversary. “You Are the Music” was first performed last year.
Established in 1908 as the Miami University Women’s Choral Society, the ensemble has grown from an informal, 25-member society into a premier chorus composed of singers representing majors from every division in the university.
Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the department of music at (513) 529-3014.
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TweetOCAC’s Second Fridays hosts a performance by “Where’s Johnny,” art by Brittany Lawson
Second Fridays Art Evening will feature a performance by the musical group Where’s Johnny, May 8, at the Oxford Community Arts Center.
The evening beings at 6 p.m. with a reception and open studios. The musicians will hit the stage at 8 p.m.
Where’s Johnny is a group of nostalgic vocalists casually assembled with a common love of popular vocal music and a desire to keep their musical chops. Maureen and John Nimis just wanted to play around with some harmonies and called Dave McGrew and Meggan Peters. Being veterans of Oxford Choral Ensemble, missing singing and wanting to “use it or lose it,” they jumped at the chance to sing - just for fun. McGrew recruited Greg McBee, the newest member, at a Rotary meeting. Over time they have put together an eclectic assortment of their favorite tunes - some retro or romantic, some silly.
Second Friday includes the opening of an exhibition by featured artist Brittany Lawson (see “Eagle,” above) in The Gallery, on view through May.
Also featured this month in the South Parlor is an exhibit titled “The Art and Craft of Hand Papermaking,” artwork produced by Kathy Baxter’s Miami University honors students. These unique pieces range from books made from alfalfa to collages and paper lamps, on display through May 8.
Open Studios, hosted by OCAC’s resident artists on the third floor of the Arts Center is the one consistent staple of Oxford Community Art Center’s Second Friday event. Guests can view the creative spaces of the artists as well as purchase one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork. The artists come from a variety of backgrounds, and display an assortment of styles such as jewelry making, acrylic and oil painting, watercolor and drawing.
The Art Shop is a new addition to the Community Arts Center. Local artists have formed a co-operative and opened a gallery/shop on the first floor of the Center. Works of art for sale include, pottery, jewelry, paintings fabric pieces and many other types of artwork,
An interactive and fun event that occurs every Second Friday: Nancy Sturgeon and Janet Holmes offer a gentle introduction or a more comprehensive approach to the joys of ballroom dance, featuring open dancing from 8 to 10 p.m. Cost is $5 per person, and all proceeds go to the Oxford Community Arts Center. No sign up is required.
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TweetMiddletown Arts Center exhibition turns out to be a family affair
The Middletown Arts Center has heavily promoted the upcoming exhibit by renowned artist Kevin Macpherson, but another Macpherson has arrived there already.
Staff photo by Gary Stelzer Jack Howard, exhibition chair at the Middletown Arts Center, and Assistant Director, Kim Minor, hands one of Wanda Macpherson’s painting on a wall at the center Monday, April 27, 2009 in Middletown, Ohio. The exhibit Reflections on a Pond by oil painter Kevin Macpherson, Wanda’s husband, will debut east of the Mississippi to a special invitation only reception at the center on Friday, May 15, then open to the general public that following Monday.
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TweetFairfield CAC closes performance season with Chinese dancer
The Fairfield Community Arts Center presents the awarding-winning Chinese choreographer and solo dancer Yu Wei in the closing performance of the 2008-09 One Stage Series, 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2, 411 Wessel Dr., Fairfield.
Yu Wei Chinese Dance Collection combines original dance with cinematic vignettes of Yu Wei’s life as one of China’s premiere dancers.
The evening features music from China, original costumes, short films depicting the culture behind the dances and, most of all, Yu Wei’s graceful beauty that makes her a treasure of both China and the world.
Tickets are $15 adults and $12 seniors/students. Call the FCAC Box Office at (513) 867-5348 for information.
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TweetMusic Cafe presents its annual Gospel Music Night
The Music Cafe presents its annual Gospel Night, Tuesday, April 28.
“Gospel is another flavor in the diverse Music Cafe offerings,” said spokeswoman Diane Evans. “We felt the need to highlight this genre once a year. Gospel is the root of so many music forms performed at Music Cafe, and it deserves its special place in our line up.”
Performers include the Men of Judah, The Tried Stone Baptist Church Men’s Group, Terry Petersen, Lighthouse and the Thunderbay Trio.
The Thunderbay Trio is headed by Mike Gabbard, vocals and guitar, who has been singing and playing in local rock, country and Christian bands for more than 45 years. On the bass guitar and vocals is Nick Root, who has performed in Foster & Root and Jessie. Drummer Rick Fox has been playing drums for more than 40 years and has performed with his own band Showdown for many years as well as performing in local jazz trios, ethnic bands and local rock bands.
The Music Cafe provides a performance opportunity for musicians of all ages and abilities to hear and present live performances in a friendly and supportive environment.
The music begins at 7 p.m. at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton. Admission is free. Refreshments provided.
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TweetWomen of the Air Force Band present an ‘Evening of Patriotic Music & Other Favorites’
The program will include such favorites as “America, the Beautiful,” “American Red Cross March,” “Lassus Trombone” and other marches, show tunes and other favorites.
Created in 1951, the Women in the Air Force (WAF) Band was a unique and exceptional chapter in the history of the US Air Force until it was disbanded in1961. The WAF Band’s concert will once again prove definitively that patriotism never gets old and WAF Band members simply defy age in this reunion concert.
The Women’s Air Force Band, conducted by Captain MaryBelle J. Nissly, was one of the few places women could perform as professional musicians.
During its ten year history, 235 women played with the Band, with approximately 50 women musicians comprising the band at any given time. They performed in countless parades and concerts for the pleasure of thousands of music lovers who had the opportunity to hear the all-woman band.
The WAF Band holds the unique position of being the only all-woman former military band still performing publicly today. Among their other firsts include the first women’s band to march in a Presidential Inauguration and the first women to receive parachute training at Lackland Air Force Base.
In 1997, WAF band members began a series of reunions, each in a different location of the United States. Archives of the WAF Band’s history were collected by Dixie Johnson, the first President of the band.
These archives are now available to those interested in women’s military/band history at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe/Harvard Universities.
In addition, Johnson has written the history of the band in a book “The U.S. WAF Band Story,” available at the Women in Military Service to America Memorial (WIMSA) in Arlington, Va. Johnson has donated all proceeds from the book to WIMSA, as a tribute to those who served.
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TweetMiami U. Symphony Band and Wind Ensemble present joint concert
The Miami University Symphony Band and Wind Ensemble directed by Gary A. Speck will perform a joint concert at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, in Hall Auditorium.
The Symphony Band will present a varied program including John Cheetham’s “Fanfare and Steeplechase,” Folk Song Suite by Ralph Vaughan Williams, “Acrostic Song” by David del Tredici, “Children’s March” by Percy Aldridge Grainger and Variations on a Korean Folk Song by John Barnes Chance.
The Wind Ensemble repertoire includes “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein, El Salon Mexico and “The Promise of Living” by Aaron Copland, in addition to “Cathedrals” by Kathryn Salfelder and Canzon Primi Toni by Giovanni Gabrieli.
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call the music department, (513) 529-3014.
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TweetGreater Hamilton Art Exhibit generates its own themes
Greater Hamilton Art Exhibit, through June 18, Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton. (513) 863-8873.
Although there are no theme requirements for the biennial Greater Hamilton Art Exhibit, themes have a way of emerging, according to the Fitton Center for Creative Arts director of exhibitions Cathy Mayhugh.
So as she set about arranging the 89 works selected for the show by jurors Robert A. Coates, associate professor of art at Sinclair Community College, and Jennifer Pearson Yamashiro, who teaches American art, the history of photography and the Western art history surveys at Miami University Hamilton, Mayhugh attempted to seek out some of common ideas.
“One gallery is full of intense color and whimsical elements,” she wrote in the exhibition description. “Many of the pieces have a childlike charm, but a second look reveals deeper meanings.”
“Another room sparks imagination and storytelling with mythical creatures and mysterious personalities,” she said. “In another room, look for American scenes, watery pieces and predators.”
The 44th Greater Hamilton Art Exhibit drew 251 entries from 151 artists.
Best of Show in the juried exhibition was awarded to Birgit Ehmer, Cincinnati, for her mixed media wall construction titled “Everybody is Out to Get Me,” in which a trio of fanciful creatures fashioned from silver tableware descend upon a golden scarab.
The Silver Prize for two-dimensional work will be given to Paul Loehle, Cincinnati, for a pastel painting titled “Look”; the three-dimensional Silver Prize will be given to Sally Grenner, Hamilton, for “Dancers,” a whimsical sculpture created from colorfully painted honeysuckle branches.
Image: “Good Dog,” by Eaton artist Amy Mitchell, is one of 89 works in the Greater Hamilton Art Exhibit .
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TweetAnime Cafe at the Oxford Lane Library, May 9
Teens ages 14 -18 are invited to the Oxford Lane Library, 15 S. College, for Anime Café on 2 p.m. Saturday, May 9.
This month features a screening of “Le’Chevalier d’Eon,” in which zombies are orchestrating a French Revolution and only one man and the ghost of his sister can stop them.
For details, call (513) 523-7531, ext. 215.
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TweetMad Anthony Theatre Company announces 2009-10 season
The Mad Anthony Theatre Company, the resident theater group at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, has announced its 2009-10 season.
The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard, Sept. 16-20. Two feuding theater critics, Moon and Birdboot, are swept into a whodunit they are viewing. In this spoof of Agatha Christie-like melodramas, the body under the sofa proves to be someone the critics know quite well. As mists rize about isolated Muldoon Manor, Moon and Birdboot become dangerously implicated in the lethal activities of an escaped madman.
Cinderella by Fitz Patton, David Kisor and Joe McDonough, Dec. 9-13. This new musical takes on the traditional tale to feature a bookish and nearsighted heroine who finds and captures the heart of a studious prince. Full of wit, warmth and charm, this Cinderella contains a beautiful original score and a few unexpected twists that make for a funny and lovable show for both kids and adults.
Guest Artist by Jeff Bridges, Feb. 17-21. In the tradition of “Boom Town,” “Guest Artist” is a play about the arrogant use of power, a story about taking risks, playing it safe and the mixed blessing of getting exactly what you wish. In his most autobiographical work yet, Daniels weaves a funny and poignant story about a young man coming face to face with his hero and explores the tangled relationship between the dreams of youth and the wisdom of age.
Golf: The Musical, May 19-23. Exasperating for some, exciting for others, the world of golf is revealed in song and comic sketches that celebrate the fun, frustration and elation of this popular sport.
For more information, call the Fitton Center at (513) 863-8873.
Show descriptions provided by the Mad Anthony Theatre Company.
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TweetMUH Downtown exhibit explores memory and loss
“Memory, Myth & Omission” solo exhibition by Samantha Doan, opening reception 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 24, exhibition continues through May 7, Miami Hamilton Downtown Cafe, 221 High St., Hamilton.
Oxford artist Samantha Doan seems far too young to be worrying about memory loss, but in her solo exhibition at Miami Hamilton Downtown — titled “Memory, Myth and Omission” — she’s already begun thinking about it.
“The whole show is my thoughts about memory and that it is very subjective,” she said, “and how I seem to be losing my memories from when I was a child.”
“Omit,” for instance, a multi-media sculpture, features a typewriter typing the word “omit” over and over (with help from the instrumentation lab at Miami University, where Doan is a senior art student). The typewriter sits atop an aging dresser, a found object but a lot like one she had a child, she said, into which Doan put a television monitor with a video of her crying, mascara running down her cheeks like ink as she mourns for her lost memories and a life that was much simpler, not just for a child, but for the world.
“Everything today is so instantaneous,” she said about her on-going fascination with typewriters. “It was a lot different when you sat down at a typewriter and actually thought about what you were going to say before you started.
“I love objects that have history and look like they’ve been around for a while and have a story to tell.”
That’s the driving thought behind a piece she calls “Piano Bench,” which she constructed out of the discarded innards of an upright piano.
“When I was a kid, I took piano lessons and it was like torture to me,” she said, “so I made this bench that looks like it could be some kind of torture device.”
The exhibition also includes a work that earned Doan a bit of global exposure, “Home Intervention: The Living Inside,” which was awarded the prestigious International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award for 2008.
“Home Intervention” is part installation, part a documentation of a performance in which she re-built a doll-house from her childhood on the ruins of a home that had been destroyed by fire many years ago, she said. The house includes photos from her childhood in each room, and the installation includes a dress she wore during the performance which she made from a quilt that had belonged to her mother.
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TweetArea paintball venue open year-round
From Ohio Traveler…
The Niederman Family Farm is being saved one paintball game at a time.
What began with a handful of locals asking to play paintball in an old cow pasture on a 210 acre farm has turned into nine sophisticated paintball courses attracting several hundred players for some games.
“One day we’re sitting around the supper table racking our brains for ideas to save the farm and the next we’re knee deep in paintball requests,” said Bob Niederman.
In order to generate a new form of revenue to preserve life on his family farm, Bob dove into the opportunity to meet the demand of paintball enthusiasts. He signed up for a paintball safety course having never played the game of paintball in his life. Then he added bales of hay and straw, old water tanks, cast off farm equipment and anything else he could rummage to create bunkers for players to seek protection from enemy fire.
The early days in 2000 required a complete family effort. The Niederman children were occasionally summoned to play a game of paintball when teams needed an extra player to have even sides. Players must be at least ten years old and everyone participating has to sign a waiver.
The paintball venture snowballed.
In addition to working the fields of agriculture Monday through Friday, Bob Niederman now has to work the fields of paint Saturdays and Sundays.
“We have come a long way and now host major tournaments and themed events that range from Star Wars to Wizard of Oz,” said Bob Niederman.
Niederman Family Farm has everything anyone needs to play paintball: Safety goggles, guns, paintballs and anything else to suit up and join the fun. They get a lot of walk-ins. Those players are added to groups on various courses throughout the farm according to skill level. Any size group can reserve a field of play. Group events include church outings, bachelor and birthday parties, and corporate team building exercises, family reunions, youth day camps, and sports teams.
“One of the nice things about reserving a field for a special occasion is that the game goes on no matter the weather conditions,” said Bethann Niederman. “Plus we have covered pavilions, and barns to keep everyone dry for parties while not on the field of play. Besides, some believe the nastier the conditions, the more fun the game.”
Niederman Family Farm’s paintball courses are open year-round on weekends. There are about 50 players any given Saturday or Sunday. Groups may also play weekdays by reservation only.
About Paintball
Paintball has rapidly become one of the world’s most popular outdoor participation sports. Players include anyone from housewives to high-school students.
A paintball has a thin outer skin with colored liquid inside it resembling a gelatin-like capsule. The liquid interior is non-toxic, non-caustic, water-soluble and biodegradable. It rinses out of clothing and off skin with mild soap and water.
Paintball is a very safe sport as long as safety rules are followed. Referees on the field enforce safety with strict game rules. Each player is required to wear safety goggles at all times. The rifle is an air gun. Players are eliminated when a paintball splats on them.
Being hit by a paintball leaves a bright colored paint mark on the clothes and can sometimes sting, leaving a little bit of redness on the skin.
About Niederman Family Farm
Niederman Family Farm, surrounded by a burgeoning suburbia, is a working farm that invites the public to see an American culture of yesteryear. In its fourth generation, the Niederman’s have been educating families, school children and groups about farm life for more than a decade.
This season, Niederman Family Farm’s 210 acres will offer more than ever before. In addition to farm tours, the Niederman’s provide hayrides and allow visitors to plant pumpkins to come back and pick in fall during the Harvest Moon Maze fall festival. There’s plenty of livestock to see and fun to be had. After all, it is a working farm.
Ongoing activities feature barn rentals, primitive cabins (with heat and air), bonfire pits, paintball courses, and many seasonal events. Group accommodations are routinely made for families, Mom’s clubs, school groups, day care centers and home school groups. The Niederman’s also accommodate large family reunions and corporate events in a restored 1890s barn with modern amenities.
If one day isn’t long enough to take in the relaxing sights and sounds of farm life, stay a night at the Gregory Creek Inn Bed & Breakfast located at the farm. Niederman Family Farm is located at 5110 LeSourdsville-West Chester Road in Liberty Township, Ohio between Cincinnati and Dayton. Reservations are required. Call 513-779-6184 or visit www.niedermanfamilyfarm.com.
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TweetThunderhawk Theater presents ‘Annie Get Your Gun’
Lakota East High School’s Thunderhawk Theater presents the Peter Stone version of Herbert and Dorothy Fields’ “Annie Get Your Gun,” 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, April 24-26. $10. (513) 755-7211 x15305 or e-mail for more information.
Irving Berlin’s show-stopping tunes, “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Who Do You Love, I Hope?” and “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better),” will echo through the Liberty Theater.
Under the direction of Kristen Statt, Senior Cara Braun plays the fiery title role of Annie Oakley, and junior Colin Cranstoun will be impressing the ladies in the role of Frank Butler. Seniors Kara Ruder and Kaitlin Stertzbach will be portraying the roles of sisters Dolly and Winnie Tate. Junior Joel Call plays Tommy Keeler, a knife-thrower in the circus and the romantic interest of the lovely young Winnie Tate.
Freshman Jacob Huddilston leads the troupe of circus performers in the role of Buffalo Bill, with junior Danny Bauer as his partner under the big top, Pawnee Bill. Senior BJ Casey plays the famous and highly esteemed Chief Sitting Bull.
Over 80 East students are involved with the show—onstage as Can-Can Dancers, Acrobats, Cowboys and Indians, backstage working on tech, and in the orchestra pit, which is directed by Rob Tanis.
The show is a family friendly event, but there will be loud noise at the “shootin’ match.”
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Tweet‘Something’s Afoot’ with Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre
Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre presents “Something’s Afoot” by David Vos, James McDonald and Robert Gerlach, 8 p.m. April 30 through May 2; 2 p.m. May 3, Parrish Auditorium, Miami University Hamilton Campus. $15. (513) 737-7529.
Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre closes out its 50th anniversary season with a revival of “Something’s Afoot,” the wacky musical that takes a satirical jab at the conventional murder mystery.
To direct, the group invited back Burt McCollom, who had directed the show some 30 years ago for the Footlighters in Cincinnati and has a long history with GHCT, beginning in 1972 when he when he had a part in a mystery of another sort, “Wait Until Dark.”
“I love this show,” he said of the current production. “It spoofs all the things we dearly love about musical theater and Agatha Christie and the ‘whodunit’ style of mystery,” he said. “It is exactly what it makes fun of with a lot of plot turns and surprises. If you think you know ‘whodunit,’ ‘whodidn’t.”
Indeed, to help keep the element of surprise, the program lists the musical numbers, but don’t tell you who sings them.
“The whole thing has its tongue so far up its cheek it looks like another ear,” McCollom said.
The plot is straight from Christie’s “Ten Little Indians,” he said. A group of people who don’t know each other are invited to an isolated English estate by its owner, Lord Rancour, whom we never meet.
“The music is every style you want — tap dancing, big production numbers, waltzes — all character-driven musical numbers,” McCollom said. “We have a great cast and they are absolutely going for it.” Emily Moroney of Cincinnati as Lettie, the saucy maid, who has been rumoured to have had an affair with Lord Rancour.
“For Lettie, this marvelous weekend at Rancour’s Retreat is another opportunity to ‘live it up in style’ while serving Lord Rancour’s guests,” Moroney said. “While Lettie has been a maid to Lord Rancour for some time, she often gets away with doing minimal work — that is until she shows up to find Lord Rancour missing.”
Denny Thomas of Morrow plays the caretaker Flint, making his return to the stage after a five-year hiatus, last seen in the GHCT production of “Baby.” “Flint is a fun-loving character always on the look out for the occasional romp with the females in and around the manor,” Thomas said, “never afraid to “offer his assistance” - a pinch here and a pinch there, just what could it hurt? Very few of his lines have just one simple meaning.”
Clive the butler is played by Jeff Christian, Hamilton, whose last GHCT show was “The Crucible.”
“Clive and his wife, prior to her death ‘last winter,’ have worked there for many, many years,” he said. “The play, from Clive’s perspective, is simply an evening dinner party and the house is not prepared to his standards.”
The ingénue Hope Langdon is played by Olivia Yokers, Hamilton, who mader her GHCT debut at age 10 and in recent years has performed in “Once On This Island,” “Gypsy,” “The Sound of Music” and “George M.”
“Hope helps Miss Tweed solve the mystery of the unknown murderer, and falls head over heels in love with and uninvited guest, Geoffrey, who becomes the love interest in her life,” Yokers said.
Matthew Speed, originally from Detroit and now living in Cincinnati, makes his Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre debut as Dr. Grayburn.
“Dr. Greyburn is a mild mannered, kind man,” Speed said, “most likely Lord Rancours doctor and fellow golfing buddy.”
Nigel Rancour, “the dissolute nephew,” is played by Les Bowen of Fairfield, back on the community theater stages after performing in a national tour with Sesame Street Live.
“Nigel is the black sheep newphew of Lord Rancour,” Bowen said. “He is vain and loves his looks and money.”
Lady Grace Manley-Prowe, the obligatory “grande-dame” is played by Lebanon’s Michelle MacCutcheon, a veteran of Lebanon Community Theatre and Middletown Lyric Theatre making her GHCT debut.
“Lady Grace Manley-Prowe thinks of herself as high society,” MacCutcheon said, but “she’s really broke. She has been around the block a few times and her past may present a possible motive for her to commit murder.”
Col. Gillweather, the old army man, is played by Wayne Kirsch of Milan, Ind., also making his debut on the GHCT stage after appearing in nearly 100 productions in 16 states.
“Col. Gilweather is a career man in the British Army, having served in World War I and fought ‘the Fuzzy Wuzzies’ in India,” Kirsch said. “Unsure of why he was invited to the manor, he discovers a secret from his past connects him to the heir of the Rancor estate.”
Miss Tweed, the tweedy, elderly amateur detective, is played by Lyndall Murray, Fairfield.
The mystery genre is not new to Lyndall as she was involved in GHCT’s productions of “Postmortem” and “Ten Little Indians.” Some of her other favorite roles for GHCT include the Stepmother in “Cinderella,” Olga in “You Can’t Take It With You” and Julia in “Lend Me A Tenor.”
“Miss Tweed fancies herself a sleuth, however her experience is only with mystery novels, especially ones by Agatha Christie,” Murray said. “The happenings at the Rancor Mansion is a dream come true for her in some ways as she casts herself as a ‘Miss Marple’ as she attempts to solve the mysterious murders of her fellow guests.”
The juvenile Geoffrey is played by Jon Hacker of Trenton.
“He is a college student who is on the rowing team. He becomes in the house cause his rowing boat sinks and he swims to the island and finds himself in the house,” Hacker said.
The producer of “Something’s Afoot” is Linda L. Getz, who has announced her “retirement” from producing for GHCT.
Dan Murrell, who passed away in 2004, directed the original GHCT production of “Something’s Afoot.”
“He was a former student of mine,” McCollom said. “We’re dedicating this show to his memory and will have a lobby display about his work with Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre.”
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TweetCast photo: Liberty Junior School Presents “Seussical, The Musical!”
Tickets are now on sale for Liberty Junior’s presentation of “Seussical, the Musical!”
Performances are 7:30 p.m. May 7, 4 and 7:30 p.m. May 9. Tickets are $5 each.
E-mail Ramona at seussicaltickets@live.com to request your tickets.
Please include how many tickets, which performance you wish to attend and your preference for chair vs. bleacher seating, as available.
You will then receive information on sending in your payment to reserve your seats.
All paid tickets will be held at Will Call, which opens 1/2 hour prior to the show. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.
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TweetAnnual Indian Creek Salute to the Pioneers set for May 17
The annual Salute to the Pioneers to be held at historic Indian Creek Church and Burial Ground at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 17, will feature Mike Riesenberg, director of the Butler County Historical Society.
His topic will be “This Land Is Your Land: Historic Sites Offer a Sense of Heritage.”
Riesenberg previously worked in Washington, DC with the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT), a national non-profit with the mission of preserving America’s Civil War battlefields. He contributed to the preservation of more than 200 acres at the Slaughter Pen Farm in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His assistance with other projects has resulted in hundreds of additional acres saved at Civil War battlefields in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
The Salute to the Pioneers will be followed by a social hour with punch and cookies.
The church, built in 1829 of handmade bricks fired on the site, is one of the oldest church structures still standing in Ohio. The burial ground dates back to 1810.
The church and adjoining cemetery were badly in need of restoration when deeded to the then Butler County Park District in 1960. The Indian Creek Committee, in cooperation with the park district, launched a grassroots effort to restore the site. The committee continues to be active in providing support for the site, which is a part of MetroParks of Butler County.
The public is invited to the annual event, which is free and open to the public. For more information or directions to the church, located on Indian Creek Road in Reily Twp., call MetroParks at (513) 867-5835.
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TweetPlayhouse’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ puts a new spin on a classic tale
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson, through May 22, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati. $27-$55. (513) 421-3888.
Read the full news release at the jump…..
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There have been dozens of versions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” but nothing like Jeffrey Hatcher’s new take, opening this weekend at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
“It’s really fascinating because the standard reading of ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ is that there are two personalities to this guy,” said Kyle Fabel, who plays the devilish Mr. Hyde — or one of them, anyway. “In this version, there are several different actors who play the Hyde character, showing that there are many different parts to this guy and the potion brings out a lot of different aspects to his character.”
One of them, Fabel said, explores the feminine side of Jekyll’s self.
Only one of the five actors in the ensemble doesn’t play a version of Mr. Hyde — Fabel’s wife Katie, who plays Elizabeth Jelkes, the chamber maid who falls in love with the beast.
“I find the script quite thrilling,” Katie said in an authentic English accent. “Like all good writer’s, it’s left open to a certain degree. The audience has to work a little to find out what’s going on and the expression of morality depends on how we personally define good and bad.
“It deals with the conflict in man and the struggle that Jekyll has to be an upright person in society while feeling the shame and guilt about his desires and emotions, even his love.
“There are lots of very gray areas in this play.”
Jelkes goes to visit Dr. Jekyll while investigating an accident that happens early in the action and meets one of the Mr. Hydes.
“A relationship forms as she recognizes something in Hyde, probably the Jekyll in him, and so she falls in love,” Katie said. “She’s what we call in Britain a ‘spanner in the works,’ a wrench in the works. She sees potential for good in his belief in how bad he is.”
Although it seems very complicated on that level, Katie said, the play can still be enjoyed without digging so deeply into the psychology behind it and be viewed as a horror/action story.
The production, Kyle Fabel said, is “very energetic, going from scene to scene quite rapidly, a combination of intimate and large at the same time,” and the actors all play multiple roles.
“There’s a lot of physical interaction and implied violence, but it’s not very gruesome,” he said.
PHOTOS by Sandy Underwood
Kyle Fabel and Katie Fabel, top
Anderson Matthews and Anthony Marble, above
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2009
(CINCINNATI) - The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park ends its Marx Theatre season with Jeffrey Hatcher’s DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Mesmerizing and theatrically intense, DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE begins previews in the Playhouse’s Robert S. Marx Theatre April 21 and continues through May 22.
Against the backdrop of Victorian London in 1883, the respected Dr. Jekyll begins acting alarmingly erratic toward his friends. At the same time, a brutal figure haunts the city’s streets, committing murder and assault under the cloak of darkness and the dismal London fog. Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer and friend of Jekyll, is very concerned about his friend’s choice of acquaintances. He confronts the monstrous Mr. Hyde in a maze of interlocking scenes that attempt to answer the puzzles at the heart of a tortured soul.
In Hatcher’s retelling of this classic tale, one actor portrays Dr. Jekyll and four other actors portray Hyde, each revealing his many faces: brutality, sexuality, heartlessness and cruelty. This adaptation questions the line between good and evil as the mystery of the connection between the virtuous doctor and the vicious stranger unravels. The final struggle for control of one man’s soul brings Jekyll face to face with his deepest nature.
The original story, a novella titled Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, was written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886. It sold over 250,000 copies in a time when the sale of mere thousands was considered a sensation. Over 120 different adaptations of the story have been written, but the latest by Jeffrey Hatcher adds a twist to the seemingly expected storyline.
Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher is a familiar name to Playhouse audiences. Five of his previous works — A PICASSO, EVERYTHING’S DUCKY, THE TURN OF THE SCREW, ELLA and the world premiere of SCOTLAND ROAD — have been produced previously at the Playhouse.
His other credits include the book for the Broadway musical NEVER GONNA DANCE and scripts for the films STAGE BEAUTY, CASANOVA and the recently released feature film THE DUCHESS.
According to Mr. Hatcher, “I hope audiences will be satisfied with the sensational thrills that go with the territory. But I hope they’ll also have their expectations tweaked in such a way that on occasion they think, ‘Oh, I never would have dreamed of that’ or ‘I haven’t seen that in Jekyll and Hyde before,’ and that when they leave, a very old and great piece of literature has been given a vivid retelling.”
The cast of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE includes Anthony Marble (OTHELLO, LEAP and TWELTH NIGHT) as Dr. Henry Jekyll, Anderson Matthews (THE CRUCIBLE, TEN LITTLE INDIANS and A FLEA IN HER EAR, among others) as Gabriel Utterson and Edward Hyde, Scott Schafer (DRACULA) as Sir Danvers Carew, Richard Enfield, O.F. Sanderson, Inspector and Edward Hyde, Katie Fabel as Elizabeth Jelkes, Kyle Fabel (CLOSER and THE DEAD EYE BOY) as Dr. H.K. Lanyon, Police Doctor, Surgical Student and Edward Hyde and Bernadette Quigley (RECKLESS and THE CRUCIBLE) as Poole, Surgical Student, Police Doctor and Edward Hyde.
Producing Artistic Director Edward Stern will direct. Other members of the production team include Set Designer Robert Mark Morgan, Costume Designer Elizabeth Covey, Lighting Designer Thomas C. Hase and Sound Designer Rusty Wandall. The production stage manager is Jenifer Morrow and assistant stage manager is Jamie Lynne Sullivan.
Prices for DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE are $27-$55 depending on day and seat location. Tickets are $39 ($24 for the Corner Club) for the preview performances are at 7:30 p.m. on April 21 and April 22. The official opening night is Thursday, April 23 at 8:00 p.m.
Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays.
Join Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the Esquire Theatre for a special event on Saturday, April 11 at 10 p.m. Watch the 1941 classic version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE at the Esquire Theatre starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner and receive half-price tickets to DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Movie tickets are $9.50 and can be purchased by calling the Esquire Theatre box office at 513/281-8750. Some restrictions apply. Full details at www.cincyplay.com and www.esquiretheatre.com.
The Playhouse is fully accessible. Audio enhancement receivers, large print programs and complete wheelchair access are available.
Artists fly to and from Cincinnati on Comair, the Playhouse’s official airline.
The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
The Playhouse also receives funding from the City of Cincinnati and The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
SPECIAL PERFORMANCES
* Meet the Artists* These free programs allow audiences to interact with cast members and others associated with the production following the show.
2 p.m. Sunday, April 26
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 29
2 p.m. Sunday, May 10
8 p.m. Thursday, May 14
Audio Described Performance 4 p.m. Saturday, May 9
Signed Performance 2 p.m. Sunday, May 10
Playhouse Perspectives
A free, pre-show lecture series featuring theatre artists and experts. Funding provided by Roderick and Barbara Barr. The featured speaker will be playwright Jeffrey Hatcher. Time: Sunday, May 3 at 6 p.m.
Dining Options
Karlo’s Bistro at the Playhouse offers full-service dining prior to most evening performances. Dinners include salad, entrée and dessert. Reservations are required by noon on the day of the show. The price is $25. Karlo’s Casual Fare offers busy theatre patrons an alternative light, quick bite prior to the show. Options include salads, sandwiches, soups, pasta and desserts. No reservations are required.
SPONSORS
The 2008-2009 Marx Theatre Series is presented by The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Production Sponsors: Clark, Schaefer, Hackett & Co. and U.S. Bank
Honorary Producers: Dr. and Mrs. Charles Carothers
Design Sponsor: Johnson Investment Counsel
Artist - Jekyll and the Hydes Brandon Daush
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TweetHamilton “Movies in the Park” series set for the summer
The Hamilton Parks and Recreation Department has announced its lineup for the 2009 “Movies in the Park Series.”
Madagascar 2: 8 p.m. Saturday, June 27, North End Athletic Complex, 700 Joe Nuxhall Blvd., Hamilton.
Hotel for Dogs: 8 p.m. Saturday, July 18, Park on Riverfront Plaza/ Dayton St., across from Courtyard by Marriott, Hamilton.
Monsters vs. Aliens: 7 p.m. Friday, August 14, Veterans Park, 20 New London Road, Hamilton.
Events include arts and crafts projects, visits from the Lane Library’s Bookmobile and free popcorn.
Movies will be shown at dark on an inflatable screen.
For more information contact the Hamilton Parks and Recreation office at 785-7060
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TweetSamantha Doan solo exhibition at MUH Downtown: Memory, Myth & Omission
“Memory, Myth & Omission” solo exhibition by Samantha Doan, opening reception 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 24, exhibition continues through May 7, Miami Hamilton Downtown Cafe, 221 High St., Hamilton.
The exhibition features sculptures, installations, video and performance work from the 21-year old Miami University senior art student.
The work revolves around themes of home, personal history/mythology, communication and memory.
I’m setting up a meeting with Samantha tomorrow to take a closer look while she’s installing… More to come…
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TweetSummer camp creativity at the Fitton Center
The Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton, will host a series of creative summer camps for children ages 6 to 13.
Each camp runs 9 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday. Scholarships are available, sponsored by Claire Fitton. Limit one per family per year.
Registration available on-line, or call (513) 863-8873 ext. 110.
WEEK ONE: FUN, FABULOUS FOOD! June 22-26. Campers will create art that is inspired by their favorite foods. Create your own restaurant, grocery store or picnic. Sculpt food items and dishes out of clay or paper mache. Use real food to create edible sculptures.
WEEK TWO: IN THE SKY! June 29-July 3. Explore mysteries in the sky like constellations, UFOs, rockets, planes, spaceships, and hot-air balloons.
WEEK THREE: WEARABLE ART! July 6-10. Create all kinds of art that you can wear — like clay jewelry and tie-dye shirts. Campers must bring a white cotton T-shirt for tie-dying; all other materials are provided.
WEEK FOUR: ART OF THE RENAISSANCE! July 13-17. Journey into the world of the Renaissance with kings, queens, dragons and brave knights. Create costumes and castles and journey back in time.
WEEK FIVE: BUGS, BUTTERFLIES & BEETLES! July 20-24. Imagine what the world would look like if you were a bug. Create art while exploring the flowers and plants where bugs live. Create cool creatures using clay, paint, wire and more.
WEEK SIX: ART THAT MOVES! July 27-31. Create energetic art like pop-up displays or invent a new machine that really moves.
WEEK SEVEN: UNDER THE SEA! August 3-7. What lives under the sea? Discover fish, sharks, shells, mermaids and sea monsters! You might just discover a lost underwater city or sunken treasure. Use all kinds of art materials to create your own underwater scene.
WEEK EIGHT: CRAZY CARTOONING! August 10-14. A camp for those who love to draw. Invent your own characters and tell imaginative stories. Learn how to show expression and movement in your characters and create an original comic.
BASIC GUITAR This camp is for complete beginners. Using activities, games and hands-on playing, we will explore beginning chords, strumming,basic notes, maintenance and care of the guitar.Students will need a guitar, three medium gauge picks and a paper folder. Guitars can be rented from the Fitton Center for $10. Sessions are 10 to 11 a.m. Monday - Friday for ages 6-9; 11 a.m. to noon for Teen Time, weeks one through four.
SINGING AND STRUMMING This camp is for guitar players interested in singing and playing the guitar. This camp, not for complete beginners, will show you how to match chords with words, different strums and finger picking patterns and how to use a capo. You will also learn singing techniques and tips for performing. Students will need their own guitar, the ability to play basic chords and a desire to sing. 10:30 a.m. to noon, ages 8 and up, weeks five through eight. Cost per week: $45 member/$55 nonmember
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TweetCPAL Idol competition open for area teens
Children’s Performing Arts of Lakota has announcee the return of “CPAL Idol” for its sixth year.
“CPAL Idol” is open to singers in three age categories: 8-12 year olds, 13-15 year olds, and 16-18 year olds.
Registration starts 8 a.m. Sunday, May 3. Only email registrations will be accepted and no registration will be accepted early. Details can be found at CPAL’s web site: www.CPALakota.org.
The first 50 competitors registered in each age group will be invited to audition for the “CPAL Idol” show.
Auditions will be held on May 12 for the 8-12 year old group, May 13 for the 13-15 year old group, and May 14 for the 16-18 year old group.
Performances of the “CPAL Idol” competition will be held June 10 for the 8-12 year old group, June 11 for the 13-15 year old group and 12 for the 16-18 year old group at West Chester’s Keehner Park Amphitheater.
The “CPAL Idol” finals on June 13 will have the the top 5 competitors from each age group compete for the title within their age group.
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TweetKids With Cameras meet at the Hamilton Lane Library
Children ages 8 - 12 are invited to Kids With Cameras at the Hamilton Lane Library, 300 N. Third St., 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 11.
If your photos are always blurry, or you just want to learn more about photography, then this is the program for you to learn and practice some basic photography skills.
Kids who finish this session are eligible to become the “official photographers” for the library’s summer reading programs. Please bring your own digital camera. For more information, call (513) 894-1409.
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TweetWest Chester plans Memorial Day parade
West Chester’s Memorial Day Parade will begin 10 a.m., Monday, May 25, at Union Elementary School on Cincinnati-Dayton Road, proceeding to Brookside Cemetery on West Chester Road.
Following the parade a ceremony will be held at the cemetery to pay tribute to our veterans, both past and present.
All veterans are invited to march with the members of VFW Post 7696, parade sponsors.
Civic groups are also welcome to participate in the parade.
James Dethridge is this year’s Grand Marshal. The ceremony guest speakers will be Colonel Dean Smittle and Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones.
For more information, please (513) 304-6701.
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TweetGrown-up life lessons from puppets on ‘Avenue Q’
Broadway Across America presents “Avenue Q,” music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, through May 3, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati. $27-$80. (800) 982-2787.
‘Avenue Q’ FAQs at the jump …..
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David Benoit was trained at the Boston Conservatory and had been building a respectable career as a theater performer when the puppets intervened.
He was on tour with “Les Miserables” when he got a call from the producers of the national tour of “Avenue Q,” the Tony-winning adult puppet show, gave him a call.
“They realized the talent pool of experience puppeteers wasn’t as big as they thought,” he said. “What puppet people they could find either couldn’t sing or couldn’t do it eight times a week, so they realized they had to turn to conventional theater performers”
There wasn’t any advance training for the audition, he said, “they just put a puppet on my hand and said ‘Go!’”
That went well enough that he earned two days of puppet training and a call-back.
“It’s a very humbling skill,” he said, and even though he’s got a year-and-a-half under his belt, “I’m still working at it. It looks easy from the audience, but it’s a very specific skill that takes a lot of work.”
He has two primary characters — Trekkie Monster, the reclusive porn addict, and the slacker Nicky— in addition to a few secondary puppet characters, and some of it requires tightly choreographed movements with two performers manipulating a single puppet.
The show, he said, is a children’s show for adults. That is, while modeled after shows like “Sesame Street” and “The Electric Company,” instead of teaching you the ABCs and 123s, you learn adult life lessons from puppets who have very human life experiences.
“It’s a very funny show,” Benoit said, “and very witty, and at the end of the day, the audience has some sympathy and compassion for these puppets.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Avenue Q about?
Avenue Q tells the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who moves to NYC with big dreams and a tiny bank account. The only apartment he can afford is way out on Avenue Q, where everyone’s looking for the same things he is: a decent job, a stable relationship, and a “purpose.” Eventually, Princeton learns to embrace the ups and downs of city life and realizes that “the real world” isn’t so bad, after all!
Is Avenue Q just a grown up version of Sesame Street?
No. There should never be a comparison between Sesame Street or Jim Henson’s Children’s Television Workshop and Avenue Q. Rather, Avenue Q is homage to all children’s television teaching life lessons for adults such as paying bills, getting a job and finding love.
Is Avenue Q a puppet show for children?
Due to adult situations (like full-puppet nudity), Avenue Q may not be appropriate for kids. Parental guidance is suggested.
Who lives on Avenue Q?
Princeton - a recent college graduate who moves to Avenue Q to find his purpose in life
Kate Monster - a kindergarten teaching assistant who wants to find a boyfriend and start a special school for Monsters
Nicky - Rod’s roommate, a slacker
Rod - Nicky’s roommate, a Republican investment banker who won’t admit he’s gay
Trekkie Monster - a reclusive porn addict
Lucy The Slut - a sexy cabaret singer
Gary Coleman - the former child star from the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes and superintendent on Avenue Q
Christmas Eve - Brian’s fiancée, a feisty Japanese therapist
Brian - Christmas Eve’s fiancé, a 32-year old aspiring comedian
The Bad Idea Bears - Princeton and Kate’s inner devils
Mrs. T. - Kate’s boss, an elderly kindergarten teacher
How long is Avenue Q?
The show is 2 hours and 10 minutes including a 20 minute intermission.
Who is starring in the show?
Avenue Q is an ensemble show with many talented actors. The show features new, young and gifted performers.
What awards has Avenue Q won?
2004 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, and nominations for Best Performance by a Leading Actress, Best Performance by a Leading Actor and Best Director of a Musical, Jason Moore
2003 Drama Desk award nominations for Outstanding New Musical, Outstanding Leading Actress, Outstanding Book of a Musical, Outstanding Lyrics and Outstanding Music.
Also nominated for a Grammy Award for Outstanding Broadway Soundtrack.
Who created Avenue Q?
Avenue Q features music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, based on an original concept by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx; and is directed by Jason Moore; puppet design by Rick Lyon, musical supervision by Stephen Oremus, choreography by Ken Roberson, scenic design by Anna Louizos, costume design by Mirena Rada, lighting design by Howell Binkley, and sound design by Acme Sound Partners.
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TweetColin Hay performs sold out show - closed circuit room available
Colin Hay, 8 p.m. Friday, April 24, Fairfield Community Arts Center, 411 Wessel Dr., Fairfield. Auditorium sold out; $5 for closed circuit viewing room. (513) 867-5348.
The Colin Hay concert scheduled for Saturday at the Fairfield Community Arts Center to benefit Sojourner Recovery Services has sold out, but tickets still remain for a closed-circuit big-screen television viewing room, according to Sojourner spokesman Brent Russell.
“People will be able to meet Colin after the concert when he comes out to sign autographs, Russell said. “We will have some special autographed memorabilia in a silent auction as well. One thing is handwritten lyrics to one of his songs.”
Although the native of Scotland made his fame with the Australian band Men at Work (“Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under”), Colin Hay’s solo work over the last 15 years has been acoustic-based, he said in a phone interview, so performing in venues like the Fairifield CAC is “his natural habitat” now.
His latest album, “Are You Looking at Me?” is his second release Compass Records, which has also begun the process of re-releasing his work from that era, beginning with “Transcendental Highway.”
“During the 1990s, I made five or six albums myself and not that many people have them because my label dropped me,” he said. “So I started putting them out myself, so it was very limited distribution.”
Working with a smaller label like Compass allows him to concentrate on making the music and not having to deal with all the nuts and bolts details of getting the music to the people, he said.
“It’s got nothing to do with the way you record,” he said. “I just send the material to them and they’ve got the people who know what they’re doing, but it’s not the old record company set up as we used to know it. That system is pretty much gone because it was so inefficient. Studios could afford to fail and take on artists who didn’t sell as much because they were making so much off of the big stars.”
His next album, “American Sunshine,” is recorded and ready to go, awaiting completion of the cover art and the other production details, he said.
The title song is an instrumental titled after a nick-name given to him by his wife’s cousin.
“I’m not American, but apparently I exude sunshine,” he said. “People can take whatever else they want from it.”
Performing in an acoustic setting allows him the chance to be more intimate with the audience, he said, and his shows are usually fairly impromptu “because I don’t have much of a plan.”
“More than anything else, its about why I’m on stage at this point in time and why the audience is there where they are,” he said. “Everyone has a different reason to go to a show, but what we have in common is that we’re both there.”
When he writes, however, his first audience is himself, so he tends to use material that he’s gathered from others as sources for songs.
“I’ve got to please myself to come up with something interesting,” he said, “and my own experiences aren’t. It’s a constant challenge in a way, to come up with new things that you think are cool. It’s never-ending, but that’s what I do to enjoy myself.
“Sometimes, I put it off, but when you start doing it, it’s enouromously satisfying,” he said. “But if you try to please everybody, you just end up going crazy.”
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TweetThe Great Kaplan brings new and improved show to Fairfield Community Arts Center
The Great Kaplan, 7 p.m Saturday, April 25, Fairfield Community Arts Center, 411 Wessel Dr., Fairifield. $7 adults; $5 children 12 and younger. (513) 867-5348.
David Kaplan, aka “The Great Kaplan,” must’ve gone to some school. Instead of “the three Rs,” he learned “the three Ms”: Music, magic and mayhem.
He began his career as a musician, he said, but he began doing his one-man shows to include his love of the antics of performers like Victor Borge and the Smothers Brothers, with a little Buster Keaton and Wile E. Coyote thrown in for good measure.
“I managed to marry all of the things I enjoy doing into one big potpourri of insanity,” he said.
His show, he said, is a constantly evolving program, so that if you saw him five years ago at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts, some of the material might seem familiar, but much of it will have been added since.
“I’m constantly polishing the jewel,” he said. “It’s the same show I’ve been doing for 25 years, but it ebbs and flows as I bring in new pieces and take out old pieces.”
He said, for instance, that he’s been working a lot more with magic lately.
“In my never-ending quest to pass myself off as a magician, I did a few contests in the last few years,” he said, “and I won some international awards.”
That was two years ago at an international magicians convention held in Louisville, Ky., where 100 competitors performed in front of 1,900 of their peers. He came in second, but as a result of that, he received contracts to perform in Italy, Germany, Japan, Las Vegas and three weeks in New Zealand.
Also about two years ago, he added a live organist to complement his “cornucopia of new schtick.”
“That was a big upgrade,” he said. “And I’ve also started playing my great-grandfather’s ukulele that was made in 1887 and he brought over from the Old Country in 1902.”
Which Old Country?
“Prussia, maybe,” he said. “The details are a little sketchy.”
Nevertheless, playing the uke has joined the balloon and the turkey baster as the instruments he will play himself, live on stage without a net.
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TweetDrumming for health program at the Knolls of Oxford
Drum Circle Planet presents “Drumming for Health and Quality”, 3 p.m. Wednesday May 27 at the Knolls of Oxford 6727 Contreras Rd., Oxford.
Presentations will be given about how hand drumming benefits health and quality of life and builds community exchange.
Following presentations, Dr. Pete Carels, drum facilitator and founder of the Oxford Gourd and Drum Ensemble (OGADE) will lead an impromptu drum circle with residents of the Knolls and audience volunteers.
The open house also celebrates a new hand drum instruction DVD produced by Drum Circle Planet, “Drumming for Health and Quality of Life.”
For more information, call (513) 777-2928.
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TweetMason High School Theater presents “The Secret Garden”
SYNOPSIS: “The Secret Garden,” the Tony Award-winning musical written by Marsha Norman with music by Lucy Simon, based on the children’s novel by Francis Hodges Burnett, tells the story of a young girl orphaned in colonial India and sent to live with her uncle in a mysterious old mansion in the north of England. Through her discovery of a secret garden, she finds a new home and brings healing and spirit of rebirth to her new family The musical includes such famous songs as “Lily’s Eyes,” “Winter’s on the Wing,” “Hold on,” and “A Bit of Earth.”
CAST & CREW: Moira Cevasco as Mary Lennox, Lauren Ringel as Lily Craven, Michel Victoria as Archibald Craven, David Chzanowski as Dr. Neville Craven, Molly Anderson as Martha, Jordan Reeves as Dickon, and Beena Raghavendran as Colin Craven. The show is stage managed by Katie Turfan, assistant directed by Matt Van Slyke, and assistant technical directed by Alex May. Including the orchestra and technical Crews, well over one hundred students have contributed their talents to this show.
Pictures: Top: Lauren Ringel as Lily Craven; Moria Cevasco as Mary Lenno, bottom.
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TweetActing Up auditions for ‘High School Musical’
Acting Up will be auditioning for Disney’s “High School Musical,” 6 p.m. Thursday, May 14, Monday, May 18 and Tuesday, May 19 at Mason Intermediate School, 6307 Mason-Montgomery Rd., Mason, in the 45 cafeteria.
You only need to attend one of these dates. No appointment is necessary.
The show requires actors/singers/dancers ages 10-18 years old. In order to audition, you must turn 10 years old by Sept. 1, 2009.
You will be required to have prepared 32 bars of a song (preferably not from “High School Musical”) and a monologue of 1-2 minutes.
The song may be accompanied by a CD (as long as there are no lyrics and cued to where you will start your 32 measures of the song. or may be sung a capella. No accompanist will be provided.
Come prepared to dance. See more information at www.ActingUp.com
Disney’s High School Musical will be performed at the Mason High School Theater in the fall, dates to be announced. It will be directed by Becca Johnson with musical direction by Joseph Schnell and choreography by Megan Kelley.
Based on Disney Channel’s smash hit movie musical, “Disney’s High School Musical” tells the story of high school jock and basketball star Troy and brainy Gabriella - two teens who are worlds apart. They are brought together as they discover their love for singing, and an interest in each other. Features songs such as “Get’cha Head in the Game” “Bop to the Top” and “We’re All in This Together.”
Acting Up is a young performers community theatre based in Mason and is a member of ACT Cincinnati. In their past two seasons, Acting Up has been nominated for 117 Orchid awards and won 38 from the Ohio Association of Community Theaters, including Excellence in Ensemble and Excellence in Dance Execution. Acting Up strives to give youngsters an educational experience in the theater through performing and backstage knowledge in designing costumes and lighting, choreography, and assisting in stage managing and other stage crew positions.
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TweetContemporary Dance Theatre presents “Reality Follies”
Contemporary Dance Theatre presents “Reality Follies”, 8 p.m. April 18-18, College Hill Town Hall, 1805 Larch Ave., Cincinnati. $12 general admission; $8 students/seniors. (513) 591-1222
Local and regional performing artists will be featured in a varied evening of performance including dance, music, spoken word, and time arts.
 “Angels vs. Demons” by Diane L. Ford is an emotional roller coaster of contrast between the darker portions of life and the streams of creativity to restore balance and make a difference.
“The Orchid” by Mary Provosty showcases her reflections on family ties and stages in life.
“The Reality Fair” by Shirley Maul is a bizarre Reality Fair about surviving in the wild that takes a surprising turn.
“What Can We Say” by Steve Hayes evokes memories of a friend, a lover, a teacher, a spouse with this music.
“A Suite of Memories” by Gloria Esenwein was inspired by recorded interviews Esenwein had in 1990 with many African American senior citizens who were students in her dance/exercise classes through Cincinnati Recreation.
“Roots Pieces” by Mary Kroner presents poignant, insightful, touching stories and songs.
“Wolf Eyes” (Bill Donnelly with Jefferson James) Donnelly finds a way to become a pretty dancer.
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TweetBlues diva Barbara Morrison to perform Sunday at Xavier
Barbara Morrison, 3 p.m. Sunday, April 19, Gallagher Student Center Theater, Xavier University, Cincinnati. $22 adults; $19 seniors; $3 students. (513) 745-3161.
Barbara Morrison, a Michigan native who made her debut on Detroit TV at the age of 10, is firmly rooted in the blues tradition but enjoys the versatility to switch from ballads to jump tunes, from gospel to soul, according to information provided by Xavier University.
When not touring, Morrison holds forth at clubs around her hometown of Los Angeles. She also teaches at UCLA as part of the Ethnomusicology faculty, and directs the Young Educated Singers (“YES“) that she founded to inspire children to choose careers as jazz or blues singers.
Dan Block, a New York tenor sax star who has appeared with Morrison at such venues as the Montreaux Jazz Festival, will team with her again at Xavier. Joining them will be a stellar rhythm section of Steve Schmidt on piano, Eric Sayer on bass and John Von Ohlen on drums.
The current Xavier Masters of Swing Series season wraps up with a May 3 concert by Cincinnati’s popular Blue Wisp Big Band.
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Tweet‘Angry Housewives’ could use a make-over, but deliver the fun
New Edgecliff Theatre presents “Angry Housewives” by A.M. (Anna Marie) Collins and Chad Henry, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through May 2, Columbia Performance Center, 3900 Eastern Ave., Cincinnati. $20 adult, $15 seniors, $12 students. (888) 588-0137.
More about the show’s origins, production credits at the jump….
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New Edgecliff Theatre’s musical satire, “Angry Housewives,” is one of those plays you don’t want to examine too closely.
The script is totally unrealistic and even the rain of cliches that fall upon the stage can’t fill all the holes in it. The characters and acting are both stereotypical and over the top. Apart from some of the girly paintings on the proscenium, the production values are below most community theater standards.
And yet, what a fun show! I enjoyed it in spite of (maybe because of) its shortcomings. Groaning is a form of laughter, isn’t it?
For instance, the play begins with the musical number “Hell School,” and while artfully delivered by Joshua Steele as Tim, a punk-rocking, sexually-confused goth-dressing teen, it doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with the main plot line.
It does set up Tim’s character, and the contrast to his mother, Bev (Molly Binder), the broke and broken-hearted widow struggling to make ends meet by trying to get her friends to buy Betty Jean cosmetics. She takes the second number, the ironic “Think Positive.”
When she invites 39 ladies to “cosmetic class,” only her closest friends show up: The overweight, constantly-feeding Carol (Angela Alexander Nalley); the mousy Jetta (Kate Glasheen), who only lives to be the domestic assistant to her overly-successful lawyer husband Larry (Ty Yadzinski); and Wendy (Aretta Baumgartner), who comes up with a money-making scheme that would make Lucy Ricardo run away in terror.
That is, she persuades the quartet to form a punk rock band, the Angry Housewives, to compete in a contest at a nearby club called Lewd Fingers, run by the sleazy Lewd Fingers (Michael Hall).
I’ll go no further with the plot, not only because it’s too ridiculous, but also not important. You either go with it or you don’t. But if you do, it’s a fun ride. While some of the singing is on the iffy side from singers who can’t control their air, it’s mostly serviceable, and both Steele and Yadzinski have excellent voices to deliver solid performances in character. The four Angry Housewives harmonize well, and clearly are enjoying the chance to ham it up, but it would have been a lot funnier if they actually played the guitar and drums, too.
But if you don’t find the humor in their signature song, “Eat Your F*ing Cornflakes,” better check your pulse.
So while it’s not a perfect show, I’d recommend it for a hearty laugh.
Photo by Michael Shooner: Angela Nalley, Aretta Baumgartner, Molly Binder, Kate Glasheen.
Bored with their everyday lives and kept in insignificance by their boyfriends/husbands, these are four angry women. They try a number of outlets, including makeup parties, but nothing suits until one of them strikes a chord on her guitar and suggests that they form a punk rock group to enter the upcoming talent show at the neighborhood punk club. They form “The Angry Housewives,” and change the face of punk forever.
A.M. (Anna Marie) Collins wrote the dialogue and lyrics with additional lyrics and music by Chad Henry. Three different Disney affiliates at one time or another have optioned the script for movie treatments. Henry has been associated with the Denver Center Theatre Company as an actor and in new-play development, and is the author of nearly 20 plays and musicals. But it’s Angry Housewives, which he wrote with A.M. Collins in 1983, that tops his list of hits. The production opened Off-Broadway in 1986 and has had a healthy run in regional theater.
Directed by NET Associate Artistic Director Nathan Gabriel with musical direction by Brian Hoffman, choreography by Kim Popa, costumes by Caren Young, sets by Melissa Bennett and lights by Glen Goodwin.
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TweetHandbell Ensemble to perform at Middletown church
The Queen City Bronze Handbell Ensemble, 2 p.m. Sunday, May 3, First Presbyterian Church of Middletown, 2910 Central Ave., Middletown. Offering. (513) 422-6365.
The Queen City Bronze Handbell Ensemble debuted last December after Jenny Cauhorn, a Cincinnati church musician, had been asked to organize group to perform with the Cincinnati Pops in its Christmas Concert.
The 13 musicians she recruited from Greater Cincinnati enjoyed the challenge so much that they decided to formalize their group, choosing the name Queen City Bronze that identifies there hometown as well the metal in the bells.
Sandra Lockmeyer Greeb, a native of Middletown and a graduate of Middletown High School and Miami University, is a member of the group and a member of First Presbyterian Church, where she played in their graded bell choirs through her youth and teen years. She now continues to keep the bells ringing as the director of the choirs there.
There is no charge for the concert which is open to the public. A freewill offering will be collected to help defray the expenses of the group.
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TweetPyramid Hill prepares its collection to open the Museum of Antiquities
The building construction has been completed, and for Harry Wilks and his staff at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, it’s now just a matter of getting the art into place before opening up the Museum of Antiquities this summer.
The work is still being catalogued, Wilks said, so he doesn’t have a firm count, but he guesses that he’s collected between 60 and 70 works of ancient sculpture in the past decade preparing for the opening of the museum as part of the 265-acre outdoor sculpture park located at 1763 Hamilton-Cleves Rd., just south of Hamilton city limits.
“There are no reproductions,” Wilks said. “Every one of these works of art is a true museum piece that I’ve purchased from Sotheby’s and Christie’s,” two New York auction houses that guarantee both the authenticity and the provenance of the items to ensure that they are not stolen.
“Some of the items I’ve been out-bid on I’ve later found at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art,” Wilks said.
Wilks said he devised much of the design of the 10,000 square foot museum himself, based on buildings he’s seen on his European travels.
“When I went to Rome, I saw these estates with inner gardens and cloistered walkways,” he said. “This is my rendition of ancient Rome and Pompeii. I call the design ‘Roman-inspired eclectic.’ If you have a building for ancient sculpture, why not make it look ancient?”
The museum will focus primarily on Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan sculpture, he said.
Last fall, Pyramid Hill moved its offices into the building, but Wilks is already foreseeing the time when the desks and phones will be removed to make room for another gallery as the collection grows.
“It’s fascinating to know the history of the human race,” Wilks said, “and art is a good way to teach that history. The people that made this art had skills that people don’t use today. All they had was a hammer and a chisel, and they worked on marble because they knew that would last.”
Wilks said he hopes to start having “soft” openings for donors and special guests within the next month and a public grand opening sometime this summer.
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TweetMore pix from “The Lion in Winter”
Mason Community Players presents “The Lion in Winter” — Mason Community Players presents “The Lion in Winter” by James Goldman, 8 p.m. April 16-18, 2 p.m. April 19, Mason High School Auditorium on Mason-Montgomery Road. $12 adults; $10 students/seniors. (513) 398-7804.
These are dress rehearsal shots sent to me by photographer John Walker.
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TweetPhotos from Middletown Lyric Theatre’s ” Six Dance Lessons…”
“Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” by Richard Alfieri, 8 p.m. April 24 and 25, 3 p.m. April 26, Middletown Lyric Theatre, 1530 Central Ave. $12. (513) 425-7140.
SYNOPSIS: In roles originated by Uta Hagen and David Hyde Pierce, this two-character comedy opens as a aging but still formidable woman hires an acerbic dance instructor to give her lessons in St. Petersburg Beach, Fla. Antagonism between a gay man and the widow of a Southern Baptist minister gives way to profound compatibility as they swing dance, tango, foxtrot and cha-cha while sharing more than dance steps.
My colleague in Middletown, Eric Robinette, did the advance reporting on this show, but here are the rest of the photographs turned in by contributing photographer Robert Leifheit of Charley Shafor (Michael), and Bett Kooris (Lily) rehearsing their upcoming play “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” for the Middletown Lyric Theatre.
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TweetOhio Mozard Festival to include Kezur Award presentation
At the Ohio Mozart Festival’s Grand Finale Concert, Sunday, April 26, Maestro Paul Stanbery will formally deliver the Edward Kezur Awards for 2009 to Kenneth Danielson, pianist, and Jamie Morton, cellist.
Both students are juniors at Tallawanda High School, and both have been members of the Great Miami Youth Symphony for four years.
“The selection committee wishes to thank all who auditioned, and wanted all to know how truly challenging the selection process was,” said Maestro Paul Stanbery in an e-mail. “Henceforth, all who tried out will be known as ‘Kezur Scholars’ and may use that title in all further applications, resumes and other uses as need be.”
Each winner will recieve $1,200.
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TweetOhio Mozart Festival begins its ‘octave’ this weekend
Nothing kills an annual festival like the same-old same-old every year.
Continually expanding and improving the Ohio Mozart Festival is what accounts for its growth and success, said Maestro Paul John Stanbery.
“We have new locations, new events, new ways of doing things,” he said. “Mozart stays the same, but our approach to him changes.”
Stanberry confessed that he wasn’t sure how well a Mozart Festival would go over in Hamilton when he pitched the idea, but because Mozart lovers would have to go as far west as Oklahoma or as far east as the Lincoln Center might have helped it endure for the 13th consecutive year.
“Who knew?” he said. “It’s become one of the things that we do that got us named ‘one of America’s high-octane smaller-budget orchestras’ by Symphony Magazine.”
This year, the event takes place over what the HFSO has dubbed “The Mozart Octave,” a variety of events spread out over eight days, beginning with a Wine Tasting, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18, and ending with an After Glow Party following the Grand Finale Concert, Sunday, April 26.
On Wednesday, April 22, Ryan’s Tavern, 225 High Street, will host “Mozart’s Night Out,” which will feature 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 at Ryan’s Tavern, featuring celebrity bartenders including Mozart himself (or a reasonable facsimile).
Although reservations are closed for “Der Karnival,” the main event on Saturday, April 25, it is possible to bid on items for the silent auction fund-raiser ahead of time, and bidders do not have to be present at the dinner.
The program for the Grand Finale Concert, 4 p.m. Sunday, April 26, at St. Julie Billiart Church, 224 Dayton St., includes Concerto for Clarinet Movement I. Allegro, featuring Amanda Bell, David and Marge Belew Competition co-winner and “Solemn Vespers,” a piece of music that Mozart wrote when he was 23 years old and very bold with his harmonics.
“It’s full of all kinds of experimental stuff,” Stanbery said. “As a young man, he wrote anything he pleased, but tempered some of his choices in his later years.”
The centerpiece of the program, however, will be Serenade #8 for Four Orchestras, a piece that allows Stanbery to get a little experimental himself. “It really takes four orchestras,” he said, “so it’s very seldom played, for obvious reasons.”
Stanbery is going to divide the HFSO into quarters and place players at different locations throughout the St. Julie Billiart sanctuary to create a unique effect.
Soloists include Bess-Arlene Camacho, soprano; Janice Hammond, mezzo-soprano; Anthony Burdette, tenor and Thomas Sherwood, bass.
The concert will end with the symphony’s traditional festival-closer, Ave Verum Corpus.
“It’s the sweetest moment of the whole thing for me,” Stanbery said. “I play it as slow as possible because I don’t want it to end.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Hamilton Fairfield Symphony Orchestra, Music
TweetUPDATED: Awards announced for Greater Hamilton Art Exhibit
Adds photo of “Dancers” by Sally Grenner
Greater Hamilton Art Exhibit, opening reception 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 26, exhibition continues through June 18, Fitton Center for Creative Arts, 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton. (513) 863-8873.
The 44th Greater Hamilton Art Exhibit being held at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts drew 251 entries from 151 artists.
Jurors Robert A. Coates, associate professor of art at Sinclair Community College, and Jennifer Pearson Yamashiro, who teaches American art, the history of photography and the Western art history surveys at Miami University Hamilton, selected 89 works by 73 artists for exhibition.
“I was surprised at the sheer volume of artwork we were to judge,” Coates said. “The works selected for the show expressed good craftsmanship, challenging ideas and the courage to take chances.”
“Jurying an exhibition without researching, reading and assessing considerable written documentation was a good reminder of why I love art,” Yamashiro said. “We are compelled to make sense of what we see and engaging with art raises questions.”
BEST OF SHOW ($350)
Birgit Ehmer, Cincinnati, “Everybody is Out to Get Me” (mixed media wall sculpture, bottom)
SILVER PRIZE 2D ($150)
Paul Loehle, Cincinnati, “Look” (pastel, above)
SILVER PRIZE 3D ($150)
Sally Grenner, Hamilton, “Dancers,” (sculpture, acrylic on honeysuckle, left)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Sandra Palmer Ciolino, Cincinnati, “Homage to Herbert” (fiber)
Stephen Goettsch, Hamilton, “On the Slopes of Kilauea” (hand-woven basket: wood, fiber)
Ursula Jones, Loveland, “Ohio Flint” (necklace: bead embroidery)
Doug McLarty, Xenia, “Purple Pepper” (photography)
Velma Morris, Cincinnati, “Crown and Glory” (acrylic painting)
Lorraine Parmelee, Dayton, “E Pluribus Unum” (photography, unmanipulated)
Jack D. Pearce, Hamilton, “Segmented Bowl” (wooden bowl, 129 pieces)
Nancy Runyon-Yost, Oxford, “Pageant of Summer” (mixed media collage)
Billy Simms, Hamilton, “Blade” (mezzotint print)
Jon Yamashiro, Liberty, Ind., “Catch” (inkjet photographic print, charcoal, oil)
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Fitton Center for Creative Arts, Galleries/Exhibitions
TweetNKU presents 14th biennial YES Festival
Year-End Series Festival of New Plays (YES Fest), April 16-26, the Department of Theatre & Dance at Northern Kentucky University, NKU Corbett & Stauss Theatres. Single tickets: $12 adults, $10 seniors, $8 students. Series: $24/$21/$15. (859) 572-5464.
“Shock and Awe: Soldier’s Voices from Iraq” by Damon DiMarco
Members of the U.S. Army break the fourth wall to share personal experiences while they’re abroad fighting the War in Iraq. All stories are based upon actual interviews with U.S. veterans. Above all, this play points out that the true casualties from this war are largely hidden to the naked eye. Directed by Mike King in NKU’s Corbett Theatre. CONTENT WARNING: This show contains large amounts of graphic language, explicit content, violence, strobe & haze effects.
Performances April 16, 18, 20, 23 and 25.
DiMarco earned his MFA in acting at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University under William Esper. His acting resume includes regional theatre, television, industrial shows, live hosting, and independent films. He has held recurring roles on “One Life to Live” and “As the World Turns.” In addition to his plays he is the author of three books of non-fiction as well as co-author of an acting text with William Esper.
“Love and Communication” by James Christy
A young couple’s emotional and moral struggle as they attempt to find the best educational setting for their autistic child. They will go to any lengths necessary. Directed by Mary Jo Beresford in NKU’s Stauss Theatre. CONTENT WARNING: This show contains adult content.
Performances April 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 26.
Christy’s first full-length play “Never Tell” has been produced in New York, Los Angeles and Florida and was published by Playscripts Inc in April 2007. His play “Put Them Away was read at Access Theater in October, 2008 with a cast led by Tony-winner Cady Huffman and directed by Hal Brooks. James’ short play Creep won the Actors Theater of Louisville’s Heideman Award for best short play, and was published in anthologies by Samuel French and Smith and Kraus. He has since been a finalist for the Heideman four times, including in 2008 for “The Ride.” James received a BA in English at Villanova University, where his father was a professor of theater.
“Nightjars” by Mark Rigney
A loose band of college seniors dedicated to ‘change’, are arrested by the FBI. A drama that explores environmental activism, The Patriot Act, modes of interrogation and the terrible risks of loyalty, Nightjars is a play of where we are now, and where we might soon be going. Directed by Sandra Forman in NKU’s Corbett Theatre.
Rigney is also the author of “Deaf Side Story: Deaf Sharks, Hearing Jets and a Classic American Musical” (Gallaudet University Press, 2003). Recent stage work includes “Gillian Amber Copes with Miracles,” appearing shortly at the Audacity Theatre Lab (Austin, TX). Acts of God, centering on a deadly tornado strike, is published by Playscripts, Inc., and has multiple productions scheduled across the U.S. and Canada for the coming year. His website, with links to many of his original stories, is .
Performances April 18, 19, 22, 24 and 25.
Show times are 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
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TweetFlatland Bluegrass Barn kicks out the jams all summer
Mark Poe and the All-American Bluegrass Band, 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19, Flatland Bluegrass Barn, 7342 S. Stone Rd., Bath, Ind. (five miles west of Oxford off Contreras Road). (765) 732-3440.
You might not thing the town of Bath, Ind., (pop. 30) as a hot spot for anything but corn, but that was before the Flatland Bluegrass Barn set up shop.
The 160-seat venue is now in its second season of providing an afternoon of bluegrass music, featuring local, regional and national bands coming in from Nashville and Branson, 2 to 5 p.m. every Sunday afternoon from April 18 until the middle of November.
“We talked about doing it for years,” said Sue Treadway, who started the program with her husband Don, on their 100-acre farm. “We’ve always been big bluegrass fans and we finally got around to cleaning out the barn.”
They took the pontoons off their boat and use the deck as a stage, purchasing a new sound system and 160 used chairs from a Miami University sale to hold the audience, and started filling the place up from the get-go.
The afternoons start with a performance by the house band, the Flatland Bluegrass Band, featuring their 16-year-old grandson Nathan Treadway on banjo.
“He can play just about anything he picks up,” Sue Treadway said.
Between the house band and the headliner, she said this year they’re going to try something new by getting the audience up on stage for a spell.
“We always have a lot of people sitting in the audience that we knew could play,” she said, “so for about an hour we’ll have a band ready to back anyone up who wants to come up and sing or play the banjo or whatever.
There is no charge for the shows, but the Treadways do pass the bucket to help cover expenses.
“People are pretty generous and we can usually cover the bands,” she said.
The first headliner of the season will be Mark Poe and the All-American Bluegrass Band. Other featured performers for the season include Carl Bentley & Eagle Creek, McCoy Grass, Homeward Bound, Cornfield & Crossroads, Lori Lyn and New Outlook, the Wes Miller Band and Sparrow Creek.
See the current schedule at the jump…..
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One of the highlights of the season, she said, will be the appearance of the Goldwing Express from Branson, Mo., where it does a regular show.
There will be no program on Mothers Day, Fathers Day or Labor Day, but otherwise the Treadways welcome bluegrass fans to come and listen or join the band if they feel so inclined.
There is no smoking in the barn, no alcohol on premises and the venue is fully accessible.
APRIL 19 Mark Poe & All American Bluegrass Band
APRIL 26 Carl Bentley & Eagle Creek
MAY 3 McCoy Grass
MAY 10 CLOSED FOR MOTHERS DAY
MAY 17 Dennis Barrett Band
MAY 24 CLOSED FOR MEMORIAL DAY
MAY 31 New Clover
JUNE 7 Homeward Bound
JUNE 14 James White & Deer Creek
JUNE 21 CLOSED FOR FATHERS DAY
JUNE 28 Wes Miller Band
JULY 5 Cornfields & Crossroads
JULY 12 Lori Lyn and New Outlook
JULY 19 Evan Lanier & Bluegrass Express
JULY 26 Carl Bentley & Eagle Creek
AUGUST 2 HeavenlyGrass & Barnstormin’Bluegrass
AUGUST 9 GOLDWING EXPRESS
August 16 Wes Miller Band
August 23 Berachah Valley
AUGUST 30 Sparrow Creek
SEPTEMBER 6 CLOSED FOR LABOR DAY
SEPTEMBER 13 McCoy Grass
SEPTEMBER 20 Jake Brown and Blueline
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TweetKnow’s ‘Vigils’ marred by lackluster acting
“Vigils” is about a widow who keeps her husband’s soul in a trunk at the foot of her bed.
He’s been gone two years when the play opens, a firefighter who died following the voice of a child in a burning house. She hears a crying child, too, in her mind’s ear, but hers are the cries of the child she lost in miscarriage from the pregnancy that compelled their marriage in the first place.
But now she’s getting ready to go on a date, taking advice on small talk from the soul (who for some inexplicable reason is blind), and when she is gone, the soul starts remembering their lives together and his death, the last thoughts that roll through his mind.
The date is also a firefighter, perhaps not coincidentally the one who brought the news to her of her husband’s death. They get along OK, but there’s the matter of the troubling soul who speaks up at the most inappropriate times.
The soul wants to leave and makes some attempts to escape, but she always draws it back.
THIS WEEKEND ONLY: Staged reading of Noah Haidle’s “Mr. Marmalade,” 3 p.m. Saturday at the Know Theatre of Cincinnati. $5.
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It sounds bizarre, to be sure, but “Vigils” is an interesting, funny and thoughtful piece of metatheater (a play in which the characters are aware that they are in a play), and the Know Theatre of Cincinnati production is full of interesting effects like falling ceilings, but the actors don’t seem to strike the right notes.
As the Widow, Jenny Guy is rather stiff and numb in the early scenes, perhaps purposefully so as her character and the soul go over the rudiments of small talk. She seems a little looser and more relaxed once the action starts, but we can’t discern any difference in her character’s demeanor in the flashback scenes when she should seem more youthful and hopeful. The Soul (Fang Du) seems to be having too much fun winking at the audience to convince us that what he’d really like is his freedom.
On the plus side, Daniel S. Hines turns in one of his better performances of the season in a nicely nuanced take on the Wooer, and Chris Wesselman is funny and charming as the Body.
Noah Haidle’s script weaves together the past, the present and the fantasy together in a compelling and insightful exploration of hope, memory and purpose, but I wish the cast had played it in the same key in which it seems to have been written.
PHOTOS by Deogracias Lerma
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TweetPlayhouse auditioning children for ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park will hold auditions on Sunday, June 21 for children interested in performing in the 2009 production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.’
Nine area children will be cast to fill speaking and non-speaking parts in the annual production. Roles are available for boys and girls ages 8 to 13 years old. Additionally, the part of Tiny Tim requires a boy 6 to 8 years of age. Those cast in previous productions will need to audition again to be considered for this year’s show.
To be eligible, children must not turn 14 before December 30, 2009.
Children should submit a resume of any experience to the Playhouse, along with a photograph (a good quality school or family photo is acceptable). The resume and photo must be submitted again even if they have been sent in the past, and the resume must indicate exact birth date and height.
At the audition, children will be asked to share a one-minute monologue, story or poem with an English accent. Interested children must be available for all rehearsals, most of which are scheduled around school hours.
Rehearsals begin in mid-November. Children also must be available for all performances of the show, which are scheduled Tuesdays through Sundays and which include some weekday student and public matinees, Dec. 3-30.
Headshots and resumes should be sent to the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, ATTN: AUDITIONS, c/o Michael Haney, P. O. Box 6537, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45206. To be considered, all photos and resumes must be received at the Playhouse by Monday, June 1.
Those selected to audition will be contacted by telephone to schedule specific times. All auditions will be held at the Playhouse, located in Eden Park at the edge of Mt. Adams.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Auditions/Calls for Entry
TweetFootlighters announce cast for ‘Moon Over Buffalo’
Tickets are now on sale for “Moon Over Buffalo,” the final production by the Fairfield Footlighters for the 2008-09 theatre season.
The play is about an acting couple — but not exactly the Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy of their generation — on tour in 1953 with productions consisting of “Cyrano de Bergerac” and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives.” Fate has given the couple an opporortunity to appear in a film with film director Frank Capra, who is coming to Buffalo to check out the couple to see if they would be right for the film. What ensures in a hysterical mixture of misunderstandings and madcap misadventures.
The cast includes Michael Watson as George Hay, Peggy Allen as Charlotte Hay, Amy Sullivan as Ethel, Jana Emmons as Rosalind, Kevin Noll as Howard, Angie Dodge as Eileen, Ronnie Mason as Paul and Tom Redman as Richard.
The production is under the direction of Heidi Schiller with the assistance of Coby Osborne.
Performances will be May 22, 23, 24 and 28, 29, 30 & 31 at the Fairfield Community Arts Center, 411 Wessel Drive in Fairfield.
Tickets are available by calling (513) 867-5308 or stopping by the center during regular business hours.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Announcements, Fairfield Footlighters, Theater
TweetGreater Hamilton Civic Theatre rehearses for ‘Something’s Afoot’
I popped in on Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre’s rehearsal for “Something’s Afoot” last night, Burt McCollom (above) directing, and it looks to be a rousing, hilarious show.
You can find a cast list and ticket info here: Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre announces cast for “Something’s Afoot”.
I’ve got some feature stories in the works, but for now I just wanted to share some of the casual photos I took at rehearsal… I also took some cool costumed shots before rehearsal, but we’ll save those for later….
Stay tuned …
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TweetThe Seldom Scene finish off MUH Artists Series season
The Seldom Scene, 8 p.m. Saturday, April 18, Parrish Auditorium, Miami University Hamilton, $20 adults; $18 seniors; $12 students/children. (513) 529-3200.
The Miami University Hamilton Artists Series closes out its 2008-09 season with a non-subscription performance by the popular bluegrass band the Seldom Scene.
The band’s latest album, “Scene It All,” its first in four years, is linked to the its origins as pioneers of the early-’70s new-grass movement while showcasing the distinctive personality of the current line-up, which is recording together for the first time.
The line-up now includes banjoist Ben Eldridge, guitarist Dudley Connell, bassist Ronnie Simpkins, dobroist Fred Travers and mandolinist Lou Reid.
Eldridge, the only founding member still in the band, said the set “is one of the few albums we’ve done that I actually like to sit and listen to.”
The songs range from traditional tunes such as Jim & Jess’s “I Will Always Be Waiting for You” and Bill Monroe’s “Blue & Lonesome” to such left-field choices as Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ & Tumblin’” and Bruce Springsteen’s “One Step Up.” Before joining the Seldom Scene, Simpkins was a longtime member of the Virginia Squires and held down the bass job in the Tony Rice Unit from 1990 through 1995.
Connell is best known as the lead singer of the legendary Johnson Mountain Boys from 1975 through 1994, and currently divides his time between the Seldom Scene and Longview, the Hazel Dickens Band and the Dudley Connell & Don Rigsby duo.
Travers began his musical career late in life when wife purchased him a Dobro and lessons from original Seldom Scene dobroist, Mike Auldridge, in the late 1980s. Reid, who also provides the tenor vocals, is a former member of Ricky Skaggs Band, Quicksilver, and he currently fronts his own group Carolina.
Eldridge is the “last man standing” after passing its 30th anniversary in 2001, and in his non-musical life is a full-time mathematician working on radar and sonar research.
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TweetTickets going on sale for ‘A Prairie Home Companion’s June 12 return to Cincinnati
91.7 WVXU welcomes “A Prairie Home Companion” and their annual summer tour of outdoor venues for a show that will be recorded that night and broadcast around the world the next day.
Providing a rare opportunity for the entire family to see the denizens of Lake Wobegone live and in person, lawn tickets cost $20 and children under 12 will be admitted free to the lawn. Pavilion tickets are $45 and $35 and special VIP tickets including a visit to the show’s rehearsal and a pre-show picnic are available for $145.
A ticket presale for members of Cincinnati Public Radio (home of 91.7 WVXU) begins tomorrow morning (Thursday, April 16) and continues through Saturday, April 18. The public presale begins on Monday, April 20.
ALL tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster on-line, by phone (513-562-4949), or in person at Ticketmaster outlets.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Announcements
TweetStudent art show at Sweet Art of Mine gallery
Sweet Art of Mine Art Gallery is hosting a student art show this month.
“We will be featuring artists that are in college, high school, and those that are taking art classes in their spare time,” said owner Tom Flora.
Most of the artists are in the Fine Arts program in DAAP (Design Architecture Art and Planning) at the University of Cincinnati, he said.
“The work will range from painting to photography and even sculptures, with a variety of themes and subject matter,” he said. “These up and coming artists are extremely talented and eager to show you what they have been working on.”
A reception with the artists will be 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 18.
The gallery is located in Tylersville Station at 7334 Tylers Corner Drive, Suite 300, West Chester.
Since it’s opening in November, Sweet Art of Mine has been on a mission to sponsor and promote local artists in hopes to provide a venue of distribution for original top quality, unique art in West Chester. Sweet Art of Mine owners Kris and Tom Flora have focused their time exploring new and unique ways to advertise the gallery and provide opportunity for artists to be seen and heard.
“We feel that this focused mission - and our passion for art - is what sets us apart from other galleries,” said Kris Flora.
For more information, call (513) 777-0052.
TOP IMAGE “Untitled” by Sarah Hess
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TweetThe Artistry of Nature Photo Show at Maple Knoll Village
An opening reception for “The Artistry of Nature” photo show will be 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16, on the campus of Maple Knoll Village located at 11100 Springdale Pike, Cincinnati.
Refreshments will be provided and all art work is for sale.
This unique photo exhibit will feature selected works by The Ohio Valley Camera Club and will run through May 20.
For questions call (513) 782-2462.
Top: “Three Trees,” Hawaii, by Nick Noble
“Emperor Penguin Chicks,” Snow Hill Island, Antarctica, by Larry Flinner
“American Falls in Winter” by Ed Scheid
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TweetM.U. Art Museum holds discussion with exhibiting artist Gretchen Jacobs
Gretchen Jacobs, contributing artist in the 2009 Miami University Department of Art Bicentennial Exhibition discusses her work at the Miami University Art Museum, 4 p.m. Thurs. April 23.
Jacob’s talk, “Our Body and Our Earth: A tap on the shoulder, a reminder that we are nature,” addresses the nature of her present body of work that is informed by the examination and experience of nature, specifically our bodily systems as compared to the ecosystems of the earth. Jacobs’ discusses how this view of nature impacts her work and how she sees our pulmonary, cardiac, circulatory and nervous systems as a direct connection to bodies of water such as oceans, rivers, creeks and lakes.
Jacobs has an MFA from the University of Cincinnati. She won the Ohio Governor’ Residence Art Collection award in 2007.
She is currently an adjunct faculty member in art and art history at Wright State University and is former faculty of the Miami University Department of Art.
Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon-5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. For more information, call (513) 529-2232.
M.U. Art Museum exhibits work by faculty, former students
IMAGE: “Widow Maker” by Gretchen Jacobs
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TweetReservation deadline is today for some Ohio Mozart Festival events
Today, April 14, is the deadline to make reservations for “Der Mozart Karnival,” one of the main events of the Ohio Mozart Festival, hosted by the Hamilton Fairfield Symphony Orchestra.
Der Karnival will be Saturday, April 25 at the Wilks Center on the Miami University Hamilton Campus.
Maestro Paul Stanbery says that the event is being modeled after the scene in the movie “Amadeus” when we first meet Mozart.
“Those events were called ‘salons’ and he wrote a lot of music for that kind of thing,” he said. “We’ll be playing the same song, ‘The Grand Partita,’ and peppering it throughout the evening.”
Stanbery plays the part of Mozart, but didn’t say if he’d be crawling around on the floor chasing wenches, but he and his wife Pat have worked up a Victor Borges-esque routine as part of the evening’s entertainment.
The evening begins 6 p.m. with cocktail, chamber music and hors d’oeuvres.
Dinner starts at 7:30 p.m., catered by All Things Catered and includes a carving station, mashed potato martini bar, fancy desserts, beer and wine.
The evening also includes a silent auction featuring “Noteworthy Food and Fun, Bag One for Mozart purse auction and other specialty times, including a plasma HDTV.
Tickets are $50 per person, $75 for patrons, $500 Table Patrons (for a table of eight).
New this year is the ability to bid on items by phone ahead of the night of the auction. Bidders do not have to be at the dinner to successfully bid on an item of interest. Offerings include a vacation condo in Williamsburg, Va., various dinners, an English Tea for 12, pies and cookies, a cheesecake, an afternoon of sailing, and a chef preparing your dinner in your own home.
A full copy of the items up for bid, with current bid listed, is available at www.hfso.org.
Call (513) 895-5151 for information about the auction, general Ohio Mozart Festival information, and reservations for the festival events.
Other Ohio Mozart Festival events include:
Wine Tasting, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18. $30 per person, reservations requested.
Mozart’s Night Out, 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 at Ryan’s Tavern.
Grand Finale Concert, 4 p.m. Sunday, April 26, St. Julie Billiart Catholic Church, 224 Dayton St., Hamilton.
Afterglow following concert at the Riverbank Cafe. $20 per person, reservations also required.
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TweetMiami U. Dance Theatre plans Spring Concert
Miami University’s Dance Theatre spring concerts, 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25 and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 26, Hall Auditorium, Miami University, Oxford. $10 advance/$12 at the door general admission; $6/$8 non-Miami students/seniors; free for Miami students. (513) 529-3200. A “talkback” follows the Saturday evening concert.
The Miami University Dance Theatre’s spring concerts feature works choreographed by Dance Theatre director Lana Kay Rosenberg, guests, alumni and current members:
Rosenberg’s work, “Someday I…” is set to music by Steve Mullan, a Miami University senior and features two soloists and a trio.
Gregory Robinson, a freelance choreographer and former artistic associate of Dayton Ballet, returns with “Vocalise” for five dancers set to music by Anoushka Shankar, daughter of legendary sitar performer Ravi Shankar.
Joanna Kotze, Miami ’98, of New York City, has danced for a number of companies and choreographers including the Metropolitan Opera. As a member of the Wally Cardona Quartet since 2000, she has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Mexico. She choreographed “Start Again” for the concerts.
Margaret Donohue, Miami ’06, choreographed “A Tribute continued,” her eighth piece for Dance Theatre. The work expands on a piece she choreographed as a student, dedicated to World War II veterans. The new work is dedicated to all members of the armed forces. Donohue works in university advancement.
Student works include “Winged Hearts” by Maggie Germain, a senior zoology major and neuroscience minor from Columbus; “One Last Request,” by Stephanie Ridenour, senior accounting major from Sylvania; “Fitting In” by Maggie Herrick, senior English and creative writing major from Toledo; “Ravish Me” by Lauren Schaeffer, junior mass communication major and European area studies and history minor from Perrysburg; and “Our MoonShot” by Ali Tanker, junior interdisciplinary studies major.
Photo caption: Miami University juniors who are members of Dance Theatre.
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TweetPrairie Orchid set to perform at Oxford Community Arts Center
Prairie Orchid, 3 p.m. Sunday, April 19, Oxford Community Arts Center, 10 S. College, Oxford. $10 adults; $8 students; $5 children under 12. (513) 524-8506.
When Sarah Goslee Reed and Lisa Biales met in 1991 and formed the duo Prairie Orchid, they didn’t have a clue what the next 18 years would bring.
Since then, Reed and Biales have performed their blend of folk music in schools, libraries, art centers and at festivals throughout Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia.
They have developed a program that directly correlates with the elementary curriculum in Ohio, incorporating aspects of reading, language arts, history, biology, and - of course - music.
They introduce students to guitar, banjo, dobro, violin, accordion and rhythm instruments with their music. The duo has written songs with children about various topics such as the branches of government, the history of American Indians, recycling, ecology, and nature.
Prairie Orchid’s music tells a story that is rich with harmony and alive with visualizations; their award winning children’s album “Pocket Full of Lizards” was ranked among those of Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul and Mary.
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TweetMiami Symphony Orchestra concert features Concerto Competition winners
The Miami University Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ricardo Averbach, will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25, in Hall Auditorium.
The concert will feature solo performances by student winners of the music department’s annual concerto competition:
Senior Brad Wick, performing Tomasi’s Trombone Concerto
Senior Kate Wilkin, performing Walton’s Viola Concerto
Graduate student Will Cicola, performing Rossini’s Introduction, Theme and Variations for clarinet and orchestra.
The program will also feature Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.
The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, call (513) 529-3014.
PHOTO CAPTION: Pictured left to right: Winners of the Concerto Competition, Brad Wick, trombone; Will Cicola, clarinet; and Kate Wilkin, viola. Photo by Jeanne Harmeyer
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TweetEarth Day Concert at Thompson Park features full day of music
Thompson Park, 3024 Hamilton-Richmond Rd., Hamilton, will hold an Earth Day concert, Saturday, April 18.
The line-up includes:
Steve Gattermeyer Band, 1 p.m.
C.C. Blues Review, 2:30 p.m.
Right Turn Clyde, 4 p.m.
Hunting Agnes, 5:30 p.m.
Cat Nip Band, 7 p.m.
Drift, 8:30 p.m.
Kenny VanZant, 10 p.m.
For more informaiton, call (513) 523-3680.
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TweetNashville songwriters take the stage at Ryan’s Tavern
Eddie Heinzelman, 9 p.m. Thursday, April 16, Ryan’s Tavern, 241 High St., Hamilton. No cover. (513) 737-2200.
In this high-tech world, it would be possible to have a career as a songwriter in Ohio or Indiana, but Nashville is still where the action is, said Eddie Heinzelman, a native of the Tri-State before moving to Music City four years ago.
“If you want to be in the movies, you have to go to Los Angeles because that’s where the movies are made,” he said. “If you want to write songs, Nashville is the hub where the country music industry is centralized.”
Heinzelman will be back in the area this weekend to participate in a career day at his old high school and to help kick off a performance series being initiated at Ryan’s Tavern by the Dayton-Cincinnati chapter of Nashville Songwriters Association International, 9 p.m. Thursday.
“This performance is the first of what promises to be a monthly event at Ryan’s where a Nashville writer will be in town to perform some of their hits — or soon to be hits,” said organizer Jodie McFarland, who will also perform Thursday.
The next installment will feature Eric Measel on May 22.
“This event is being put on by a flourishing group of local writers who study the songwriting craft as well as offer mutual networking and support to one another,” McFarland said. “And the beauty of the group is that it is not all about country. We study all genres of music as it relates to songwriting, and we think this is an exciting opportunity for the Hamilton community.”
Heinzelman grew up in Brookville, Ind., and had the urge to play guitar at an early age due to his fascination with Gene Autry and the singing cowboys, and his grandmother bought him his first instrument when he was 8 and began studying classical guitar at age 10 with the goal to attend the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
When he was 14, his brother started a country band and recruited him to fill in at rehearsals because they didn’t have a guitar player, but he didn’t like country music, so he started his own rock band.
“The problem was, they started getting work and all we did was rehearse,” he said. “So when they got a gig, they asked me to fill in — and then they handed me money.”
He did end up at CCM, but in jazz guitar studies rather than classical, and continued to perform in bands like Midnight on Vine while he was in school and the country band Durango with his brother after, all the while writing songs and thinking of Nashville.
“With technology the way it is, you could probably be a songwriter in Cincinnati,” he said, “but you miss the community aspect of it. If you’re in Cincinnati, you can’t call a producer up for breakfast and you can’t run by a with a batch of songs because Tim McGraw is in the studio and needs one more track for his new album.
“But Nashville is a lot like Cincinnati, so I really do love it here,” he said. “It’s the biggest small town there is with a real community vibe.”
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TweetNot your average fairy tale love story
Miami University Hamilton Theatre presents “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea: An Apache Dance” by John Patrick Shanley, 7:30 p.m. April 16-18, 2 p.m. April 19, Your Room Studio, 307 Phelps Hall, Miami University Hamilton Campus. $8 adults; $5 students. Not suitable for children.
For its spring production, Miami University Hamilton Theatre presents “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea: An Apache Dance,” the story of a pair of young people struggling to find love they don’t think they deserve.
Written by John Patrick Shanley, the author the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Doubt,”
“Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” is set in a rundown bar in the Bronx, where two of society’s rejects, Danny and Roberta, strike up a halting conversation over beer.
Played by recent Miami graduate Jason Howard, Danny — whose fellow truck drivers call him “the animal,” has severe anger management issues and has a habit of getting into extremely violent confrontations.
“He’s unsure of his future, so he’s trying to work through some stuff when he meets Roberta, who seems to be in the same spot that he’s in.”
Roberta, played by senior creative writing major Erika Fulton, is haunted by the memory of an ugly sexual incident involving her father and distrustful of men in general.
“She’s 31 years old and lives with her parents and a 13-year-old son,” she said. “Her father made her get married, but that didn’t work out. She thinks she’s a terrible mother, and that seems to be a fair statement.
“She goes to bars to pick up guys because she doesn’t feel worthy of a meaningful relationship,” Fulton said.
But when she meets Danny, she finds a kindred spirit.
“They see a lot of themselves in each other,” she said.
“When you say ‘love story,’ people think of some sappy, prince and princess kind of thing,” Howard said. “But that’s not what we’re dealing with. It’s an intense relationship, but it is a love story.”
The play is directed by Bekka Eaton, associate professor of theater.
Due to strong language and adult situations, this play may not be appropriate for children. For more information contact Eaton at eatonrl@muohio.edu.
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TweetSeven-day Forecast
kids/family
Covedale Theatre presents ‘Peter Pan’
- “Peter Pan” by J.M. Barrie, music by Mark Charlap and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, March 26-April 11, Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, 4990 Glenway Ave., Cincinnati. $21 adults, $19 seniors/students. (513) 241-6550.
‘Jungle Fantasy’ comes to Cincinnati from Broadway
- Cirque Dreams “Jungle Fantasy,” 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 31-April 12, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati. $19-$55. On-line or by phone at 1-800-982-2787. Image set REVIEW.**
Not your grandpa’s dinosaurs: These have feathers!
- “Dinosaurs Unearthed,” non-members: $15 adults, $10 children; members: $10 adults, $7 children. Open until 9 p.m. Friday. “Dinosaurs Alive,” OmniMax Theatre, non-members: $7.50 adults, $6.50 seniors, $5.50 children; members: $5.50 adults; $4.50 children. Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Ave., Cincinnati. (513) 287-7000.
April is Kids Month at EnterTRAINment Junction
- EnterTRAINment Junction, 7379 Squire Ct., West Chester. $12.95 adults, $9.95 $7 kids 3-12. (513) 898-8000.
Check our GOING OUT GUIDE for a big list of things to do with your children.
nitelife
Nashville songwriters take the stage at Ryan’s Tavern
Eddie Heinzelman, 9 p.m. Thursday, April 16, Ryan’s Tavern, 241 High St., Hamilton. No cover. (513) 737-2200.
Big list of places to gather and things to do there in this weekend’s GOING OUT GUIDE.
concerts/music
‘Signs of Life’ recreates the landscapes of Pink Floyd
- Signs of Life, a Pink Floyd Tribute, 8 p.m. Friday, April 10, 20th Century Theatre, 3021 Madison Rd., Cincinnati. 21 and up only. $14 advance, $15 day of show. (513) 731-8000.
Midday Music Series features Brahms, Beach
- Midday Music in Oxford, Noon, Tuesday April 14, Oxford Presbyterian Church on 101 N. Main Street. Free. (513) 523-6969.
MU Chamber Singers perform spring concert
- Miami University Chamber Singers, conducted by William Bausano, 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, Hall Auditorium. Free. (513) 529-3014.
U.K. worship band Hillsong London makes local appearance
- Worship band Hillsong London, 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, Grace Chapel, 100 Fifth Ave., Mason. $10 advance, $15 at the door. (513) 754-0333.
Bob Becker of NEXUS joins Miami Percussion Ensemble for its spring concert
- Percussionist Bob Becker, co-founder of the percussion group NEXUS, with the Miami University Concert and World Percussion Ensembles, 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in Hall Auditorium. $4. (513) 529-3200.
theater/performing arts
Miami Theatre journeys to ‘Urinetown’
- “Urinetown: The Musical,” 8 p.m. April 9-11 and 16-18, 2 p.m. April 19, Gates-Abegglen Theatre, Center for Performing Arts, at Miami University. $6 students and youth, $8 senior citizens and $9 for other adults. Tickets are available at the box office in the Shriver Center or (513) 529-3200.
Mason Community Players presents “The Lion in Winter”
- Mason Community Players presents “The Lion in Winter” by James Goldman, 8 p.m. April 16-18, 2 p.m. April 19, Mason High School Auditorium on Mason-Montgomery Road. $12 adults; $10 students/seniors. (513) 398-7804.
Cincinnati Playhouse presents Larry Shue’s ‘The Foreigner’.
- FINAL WEEK: “The Foreigner” by Larry Shue, Marx Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, 8 p.m. Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $27-$55. (513) 421-3888. REVIEW: ‘The Foreigner’: Funny but pointless.
‘Last Train to Nibroc’ the story of young love
- “Last Train to Nibroc” by Arlene Hutton, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays, April 2-26; previews begin March 28, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. $47-$57 ($41 preview performances). (513) 421-3888.
‘Comedy of Errors’ turns into science fiction camp
- “The Comedy of Errors” by William Shakespeare, 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through April 26, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 719 Race St., Cincinnati. $26 adults, $22 seniors and $20 students. (513) 381-2273.
Trimmed down ‘Camelot’ highlights comedy, music
- La Comedia Dinner Theatre presents “Camelot,” brunch arrival starts at 10:30 a.m.; dinner arrival starts at 5:30 p.m. $51-$69. 765 W. Central Ave., Springboro. (800) 677-9505.
Shadowbox goes ‘Wild’ with its new show
- “Born to Be Wild,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Shadowbox Cabaret, Newport on the Levee. $30. (859) 581-7625.
Not your average fairy tale love story
- Miami University Hamilton Theatre presents “Danny and the Deep Blue Sea: An Apache Dance” by John Patrick Shanley, 7:30 p.m. April 16-18, 2 p.m. April 19, 307 Phelps Hall, Miami University Hamilton Campus. $8 adults; $5 students. Not suitable for children.
galleries/exhibitions
Works from Opening Minds through Art go on view at Oxford CAC
- An exhibition of work by Opening Minds through Art artists, Memory Support residents at the Knolls of Oxford, and photographs by Maureen Coyle, opens with a reception 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 10 at The Oxford Community Art Center 10 S. College Ave, Oxford. (513) 524-8506.
Carnegie exhibit explores ‘Different Directions’ for artists
- “Different Directions… an artist’s perspective,” opening reception 6-9 p.m. Friday, April 3, Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, 1028 Scott St., Covington, (859) 491-2030.
“Miami Printmakers” show their stuff
- “Miami Printmakers,” Fairfield Community Arts Center, 411 Wessel Dr., Fairfield. (513) 867-5348.
Glenn Julian art exhibition at Knolls’ Gallery
- Works by Glenn M. Julian, the Commons Gallery at the Knolls of Oxford, 6727 Contreras Rd., Oxford. (513) 524-7990.
M.U. Art Museum exhibits work by faculty, former students
- “Miami University Department of Art 2009 Bicentennial Exhibition,” Miami University Art Museum, 801 S. Patterson Ave., Oxford. (513) 523-2232. ALSO ON VIEW: “Paintings, Prints and Sculpture: Selections from the Permanent Collection” and “Dialogue with Nature: New Conceptions of Organic Architecture, Miami University Department of Architecture and Interior Design Fallingwater Honors Studio,”
Exhibition explores Miami’s Greek history
- “Brotherhood and Sisterhood: The Art and Artifacts of Greek Letter Societies at Miami University, 1833-2008,” McGuffey Museum, 410 E. Spring St., Oxford. Focuses on traditions and lore of Greek letter societies and includes badges and profiles of campus landmarks such as the Phi Delta Theta campus gates. Closed Tuesday. (513) 529-8380.
“Dreamstates: Surrealist Art on view at Cincinnati Art Museum”
- Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Dr., Cincinnati. Closed Monday. (513) 639-2995. ALSO ON VIEW: Isn’t “It Great To Be An Artist? Insider/Outsider Art;” “Stewart Goldman: Presence through Absence**”.
New work by Tara Donovan at Contemporary Arts Center
- Contemporary Arts Center, 44 E. 6th Street, Cincinnati. (513) 345-8400. ALSO ON VIEW: “Donald Sultan: The First Decade”
Film costumes on view at Taft Museum of Art
- “Fashion in Film,” featuring 36 costumes from period films, Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Cincinnati. $12 adults; $10 students/seniors; $4 children. (513) 241-0343. ALSO ON VIEW: “Small Paintings,” offering an intimate look at collecting at the turn of the 20th century,
Country Club Gallery presents dual exhibition
- “Cheryl Dunn: Spit & Peanut Shells - American Pictures” and “Antonio Adams: Art Thing & the Orgllycreeks & Common Surprise,” Country Club, 424 Findlay St., Cincinnati. Closed Sunday. (513) 792-9744.
Things To Do are also Things That Change and sometimes Things That Sell Out, so be sure to contact the venue before showing up without tickets …
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TweetBob Becker of NEXUS joins Miami Percussion Ensemble for its spring concert
Percussionist Bob Becker, co-founder of the percussion group NEXUS, will be the special guest at the Miami University Concert and World Percussion Ensembles performance, 8 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in Hall Auditorium.
The five-man ensemble NEXUS grew out of an percussion duo in Rochester, N.Y. in 1971 and continues to perform around the world in chamber music venues as well as with symphony orchestras, and has recorded more than 25 CDs.
In 1999, Becker and other members of NEXUS were inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.
Generally considered to be one of the world’s premier virtuoso performers on the xylophone and marimba, Becker also appears regularly as a soloist and clinician. 
A disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai, the foremost exponent of the Benares tabla style, Becker began his study of Hindustani music in 1970. He has since appeared with many of India’s leading artists.
Also appearing as soloists on the program are Miami alumni percussionists Srinivas Krishnan and Patrick Hernly, along with vocalists Malini Varadarajan and Meera Seshadri, sitarist Anupama Bhagwat, and members of the Miami University Percussion Ensemble. William Albin conducts.
Tickets are $4 and available at the Miami box office, call (513) 529-3200 or order online, www.tickets.muohio.edu.
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TweetThe Hamilton Lane Library Group Discusses Three Cups of Tea
The Hamilton Lane Library’s Great Books Discussion Group will cover “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 21.
The group meets the third Tuesday of each month.
This group is for adults 18 and over and requires registration.
To register or for more information, call 894-7158.
The Hamilton Lane Library is located at 300 N. Third St.
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TweetMason Community Players presents “The Lion in Winter”
Mason Community Players presents “The Lion in Winter” by James Goldman, 8 p.m. April 16-18, 2 p.m. April 19, Mason High School Auditorium on Mason-Montgomery Road. $12 adults; $10 students/seniors. (513) 398-7804.
The Mason Community Players Inc. (MCP) begins its 2009 season with James Goldman’s “The Lion in Winter,” which follows the scheming, feuding, and political wrangling of the ruling family of King Henry II and depicts the manipulations that occur in the interpersonal relationships among members of this English royal family from the Middle Ages.
“We have been trying a new approach for us,” said director Rebecca McLaughlin, who sees her role as providing an environment for the cast. “The actors researched their characters and then read, discussed, and interpreted their roles for three weeks in a round table format, then they moved into the actual blocking of the play using an organic model.”
Bryan Campbell, who plays the King Henry II, likens the play to a chess match between the king and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, considered the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages, played by Laureen Catlin.
“They each have their own goals and agendas and their plots against each other interweave thought out the play,” Campbell said. “Henry would very much like for his favorite son, John, to be the next King and Eleanor would like her favorite son, Richard. They are very frank about it.”
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“Henry and Eleanor plot, scheme, maneuver, throw barbs, use their children as pawns, and turn the love they still have for each other against each other to win the throne for their favorites,” Catlin said. “Toss in the fact that Eleanor is none too happy about the fact that her husband is sleeping with Richard’s betrothed, a young woman she raised and cares for as her own daughter, and it makes for quite the stew.”
“People may lie, cheat and steal to get what they want,” said Jim Cronin, who plays Richard, “but always have to recognize the fact that blood is thicker than water and the love for a child or parent is a hard love to deny.”
The cast also includes Larry Catlin as John, Kevin Bundy as Geoffrey, the forgotten middle son; Randy King as King Philip of France and Kally Addis as Alais, the object of Henry’s affections.
“To further create the world of 1183, Musici Anonymi, A Consort, a musical group from Dayton that specializes in historical music, will play as the audience arrives, and again at the intermission,” McLaughlin said.
I asked each of the cast members to respond to a set of questions about their role in the play and the historical aspects of the production… Here are their replies…
Bryan Campbell as King Henry
King Henry has been a king for over 30 years. He’s very stubborn and strong willed and sometimes quick tempered. He is currently in love with Alais, but deep down inside, he has not stopped loving his Queen Eleanor.
Henry would very much like for his favorite son, John to be the next King and his wife, Eleanor, would like her favorite son, Richard. They are very frank about it.
What I believe is one of the major ideas is how intelligent Henry and Eleanor are or where. They each have their own goals and agendas and their plots against each other interweave thought out the play. It’s like a large chess match with them two and using everyone around them as the pawns. It seems to not matter who they hurt, as long as they each get what they want.
This play means alot to me. It has opened up my mind to these characters and as long as I’ve done theater, I have never been as comfortable being in “Henry” then any other character. I’ve lived with this character since we started and I’m going to miss him.
What I would like the audience to take away from our show is the believability of who we portrayed. We are playing real life people from history. They have such history and depth. I want the audience on the edge of their seats wondering who has the upper hand in their plots against one another and wondering what happened after the show ends to King Henry, Queen Eleanor and the rest of their family?
Laureen Catlin as Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Eleanor of Aquataine is considered by most historians to be the most influential woman of her age. She is highly intelligent, creative, a sponsor of the arts (she helped develop the network of troubadours throughout the European continent), mannerly and proper (she helped develop the concept of chivalry), an excellent administrator and leader, and very passionate. She was also proud, manipulative, forceful, stubborn and was considered by her contemporaries as a woman who did not know her place and who was unfaithful to her spouses, although some historians think that she was accused of the latter because of the former.
Eleanor has been imprisoned by her husband, Henry, because she had led too many civil wars against him, and is being “trotted out” for Christmas Court because their eldest son and heir to the throne was killed in battle and now the crown is up for grabs. Henry prefers their youngest son, John, and Eleanor prefers her favorite, Richard, who should be the next in line by age. Henry needs her because she is the landowner of the richest province they have and she has given that to her favored son. She’s not about to let Henry name John king and he’s not about to let Richard be king and thus the fun begins. Henry and Eleanor plot, scheme, maneuver, throw barbs, use their children as pawns, and turn the love they still have for each other against each other to “win” the throne for their favorites. Toss in the fact that Eleanor is none too happy about the fact that her husband is sleeping with Richard’s betrothed, a young woman she raised and cares for as her own daughter, and it makes for quite the “stew.”
The themes: Love is enduring. Eleanor is affected by Henry’s philandering because she sincerely loves him despite all that he has done to destroy that love and the same is true of him and his love for her.
Love is necessary. Eleanor’s children are affected adversely by the fact that they were not loved unconditionally and, as is the case with much of the royalty of the times, were pawns in the politics of the lives of their parents. Eleanor helps to shape them more by her manipulations than her affections and they are the lesser for it. She is, too. Had they been more sincerely loved, history itself may have been quite different. She loses their love and craves it when it is gone.
Power corrupts. All these people can think about is the power that they have and can have and it does not end well for them personally, as members of a family or in their times. Eleanor uses her lands and her sons to gain power over Henry and them, and it costs her dearly.
People seek to be eternal, not only through a sense of the spiritual, but through the lives of their children and through a need to be “remembered” in history. This is the source of the need for power for both Eleanor and Henry. They both hope they can live forever, but know that they cannot. All of their manipulation throughout the entire play is to ensure that there will be a piece of them that lasts forever. Given the fact that both are considered among the greatest rulers of all time, it would seem they succeeded. At what price is a point of great debate.
Theater means a great deal to me at all times because it DOES touch the hearts and minds of the audience. I want the audience to be able to have insight into the lives of these amazing people who are a part of world history. I want the audience to have insight into their own relationships with their loved ones. And I want the audience to laugh with us, cry with us and be entertained by what we present. Being in this play has meant a great deal to me, for a lot of reasons. I do not often get the opportunity to be on stage. I am often called upon to direct, produce, choreograph, design, and be on many, many backstage crews. I am thrilled to be able to bring a character to life again. I feel extremely blessed to be working with very, very talented individuals both in the cast and amongst the creative team. As actors, we are working collaboratively with the director to bring together the final product. It’s difficult to describe how rewarding it is to work with such exceptional people. It makes every rehearsal, every session working on set and every discussion about the play, total enjoyment.
Kevin Bundy as Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany.
I am the middle son of the King and Queen. Like the stereotypical middle kid, I am largely ignored and unloved. He is the “smartest” of the three and rather devious.
Geoffrey plots against each of the members of his family in an attempt to gain the crown. In the play, Geoff represents the reckless scheming of the disenfranchised. He has no real alliances but fains them to further his plan for power.
Geoffrey’s lack of real attachments adds to the plays themes of twisted relationships and the many faces of “love”. There are glimpses of the hurt he has suffered by the indifference of his parents. Although his plans serve to promote himself as king, his passion comes from a longing to be loved by his mother the queen and to be noticed by his father the king.
This has been a wonderful opportunity as an actor. Community theater often focuses on lighter fare. Playing a “darker” character has been a treat. In the past I have done plays whose strengths were the music, dances, or jokes. In this show, it is all about the dialog.
This show also offers a great opportunity for the audience. They will be on stage with us. The spectators are actually part of the “court” being held by King Henry. As they watch the twists and turns of this Christmas reunion, I hope they will appreciate the wit of the author and be moved, if not shocked, by the permutations of love expressed by this most dysfunctional of royal families.
Jim Cronin as Richard the Lionheart
Richard is the oldest surviving son in the Plantagenet family and fully believes that the he should be crowned the next king of England. Richard is impressive both in looks and power. He is eminently comfortable on the battlefield both as a warrior and a politician. Richard has a tempestuous relationship with his mother (Queen Eleanor) who raised him and a worse relationship (if it can be called a relationship) with King Henry, his father, who abandons him at an early age.
The role of Richard is for him to obtain the throne of England for himself. He doesn’t believe he should have to fight or ‘play politics’ to get the throne, but is more than willing to do both. He will allow his mother and brothers to play the game, but will not be denied what he has earned by birth and actions. He doesn’t understand how as a model warrior he hasn’t already been given the throne. He will not give anything up to get the crown, including the Aquitaine, the region of France he currently owns and protects.
The major themes of the play are family and children and the dynamic spectrum of emotions that those subjects bring out in individuals. People may lie, cheat and steal to get what they want, but always have to recognize the fact that blood is thicker than water and the love for a child or parent is a hard love to deny.
I am thrilled to be back on stage for the first time in over a year and to be working with such a strong cast. The entire experience from readings, rehearsal and tech has been a joy. I am also very excited to be performing the show in this unique staging. When Becca (McLaughlin, the director) told me that the audience was not only going to be on stage with the cast but also be on both sides of the stage it really got my creative juices flowing on how to deliver the full character of Richard to the audience in this environment. The acting is more 3 dimensional than in a traditional staging.
I just want the audience to experience the telling of a great story in a unique way. At the end of the evening I hope they leave saying, “Wow, that was a great show.”
As much fun as I have had with the show, cast and crew the one thing I won’t miss is the beard I grew for the part. I never knew how much work they could be!
Kally Addis as Alais
Alais is the daughter of Eleanor’s first husband Louis VII and Constance, Constance died during child birth with her. Alais at a young age was betrothed to Richard in return for her Dowry the Vexon, and was sent to live with Henry and Eleanor. Alais becomes Henry’s mistress over the years, and truly cared for Henry.
Alais is the pawn, she has no power, and is constantly being moved from hand to hand, throughout the events that unfold during the show. Alais would like nothing more than to live the rest of her life with Henry hidden away from the rest of the world. At the start of the show she is to be John’s fiancé, then moves to Richards hand, and by the end may even become Henry’s fiancé. Alais is constantly aware of what is happening, but has no control of her future. Alais sees people not power.
The major theme and idea of this play is power and how to hold on to that power. During the entire show it is a constant battle between power and winning. Alais has no say as to what is in store for her, but she does at one point make a stand, it is her only power play, but she is only speaking truth.
I have been so honored to be a part of this cast. This is a great opportunity for me, I have grown as an actor and person. I am so happy I did not live in 1183, but I have enjoyed living there these last few months.
I hope the audience can laugh and find the humor that is in this show, while enjoying the way this production has been performed. I hope the audience enjoys sitting on the stage with us as we perform for them.
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TweetNASA historian to discuss 1969 moon landing at Miami Hamilton
In a joint project between the Mad Anthony Writers Conference and the Michael J. Colligan History Project, Roger Launius, National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) curator and chief historian for the Smithsonian Institute, will discuss the 1969 moon landing 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 17, in Parrish Auditorium, Miami University Hamilton Campus.
This event is free and open to the public; no tickets required. A reception and book signing will follow on the Parrish stage.
Launius is responsible for managing NASA’s historical reference collection of materials about the history of the agency, and providing historical services to NASA staff and the public. His publications include Exploring the Unknown: A Documentary History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, and NASA and the Exploration of Space.
Launius is currently vice president for publications of the American Astronautical Society and editor of its magazine Spaces Times.
The moonwalk “was a scientific and technological triumph, to be sure, but the Armstrong-Aldrin moon walks also took place against the backdrop of the social and political unrest of the 1960s,” said Michael Carrafiello, MUH assistant dean and director of the Colligan history project. “Set in that context, Apollo 11’s mission emerges as even more remarkable and memorable.”
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TweetPyramid Hill holds Arbor Day event, Bridal Fair
Pyramid Hill’s annual Arbor Day event is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. April 24.
Babeck Elementary is bringing 100 students. VanGorden Elementary is bringing 150 students. Other area schools and the general public are also invited to attend this celebration of nature and environmental awareness. Each school will witness and participate in the planting of a new tree and perform their individual programs for the other students.
Imfeld’s Nursery will donate a tree for the annual tree planting. Mayor Don Ryan will give a short speech about Arbor Day and the importance of the environment and nature. He will also present an Arbor Day Proclamation to Pyramid Hill concerning their care of the forests and various special tree species in the park.
A representative from Rumpke Consolidated along with “Binny the Recycling Bin” will also be on hand to talk about the importance of recycling. Students are asked to bring an item for recycling.
Bridal Fair
Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum announces its first Bridal Fair, 2 to 6 p.m., Sunday April 26.
Page through wedding albums from top photographers, hear some music from area DJ’s, sample food dishes, see wedding cakes and explore our outdoor wedding venues.
Admission is $7.50.
Brides can pre-register for free admission and to be entered into prize giveaways. Visit the Pyramid Hill website to view a full list of vendors that are going to be in attendance and to pre-register, call (513) 868-8336.
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TweetOxACT announces cast for “Black Comedy,” opening April 25
The Oxford Area Community Theater (OxACT) brings humor to light with Peter Shaffer’s “Black Comedy,” directed by Scott Shriver, opening at 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 24, at the Oxford Community Arts Center. Performances continue at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25, 2 p.m. Sunday, April 26, and 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday April 30-May 2.
The cast of “Black Comedy” includes (front row) Mike McVey, Anne Ritz, Laura Walkup, Mel Brenner, (back row) John Clover, Dennis Piper, Matt Slone, Jeff Douglass and Stephanie Koonce:
Tickets, $10 senior/student and $12 general, are available at the Miami University Art Museum or reserve by calling 523-6228. Please do not call the art museum to reserve.
“Black Comedy” is sponsored by McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital, the Oxford Community Foundation, Donald and Betty Gerber and Designed Learning, Inc.
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TweetLane Library hosts Dr. Seuss celebration, April 27
Children ages 3 - 8 and their families are invited to “Horton Hears Yertle, That’s Who!” 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 27 Hamilton Lane Library, 300 N. Third St., Hamilton.
There will be songs and stories to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss, including readings of “Horton Hears a Who” and “Yertle the Turtle.”
For more information, call (513) 894-1409.
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TweetWorks from Opening Minds through Art go on view at Oxford CAC
Click here for more on the Oxford Community Arts Center’s Second Friday event…
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In February, 2008, Elizabeth Lokon of Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Center, began a program she dubbed “Open Minds Through Art” — OMA, for short — to “empower persons with dementia by inviting them to express themselves creatively.”
Lokon was doing her graduate studies at the time, but her background was in education and art, so she said she was looking for a way to combine the three areas of interest.
“As I went around visiting local nursing homes, I realized that a lot of people with dementia are not being served because the art activities don’t take into account that they have dementia,” she said. “They end up staring at the activity while the staff member does all the work for them, then puts the client’s name on it. I thought there’s got to be a better way to engage them.”
Lokon noticed that because people with dementia have trouble processing complicated things that the therapists would refer back to pre-school activities — cutting shapes out of paper or working with coloring books and crayons.
“But dementia is not regressive,” she said. “They have a history that cannot be communicated in the same way. So with OMA we let them do abstract painting and use real art and calligraphy to inspire them. It’s adult, but it’s simple and it works.”
The artists in OMA — an acronym chosen because it means “grandma” in Dutch and German — range in age from mid 80s to mid 90s and most live in the Memory Support Unit at the Knolls of Oxford. Their work will be featured throughout April at the Oxford Community Arts Center, opening 6 p.m. Friday, April 10, at the center’s regular Second Friday open house.
The artists will be present at the opening to welcome visitors, and there will be a silent auction of their art work through the end of the exhibition on May 1. Lokon collaborates with Irene Friedman, Brad Simcock and Miami student volunteers in delivering the program.
Thirty-three Miami students of various majors regularly volunteer to work one-on-one with people with dementia in the OMA program. The program is currently offered on a weekly basis at the Knolls of Oxford and at the Cedar Village Retirement Community.
Besides celebrating the artists and their creations, the exhibition is also aimed at educating the general public on the creative capacities of people with dementia, Lokon said.
Photographs of the artists at work by Miami photography student Maureen Coyle will also be exhibited. A silent auction of the artwork on display will be featured as part of the opening.
Photo by Buffy Hanna: Elizabeth Lokon works with residents at the Knolls of Oxford in an Opening Minds through Art session.
The opening reception for artwork by OMA artists at Cedar Village will take place 6 p.m. April 20, 5467 Cedar Village Dr., Mason.
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Tweet‘Signs of Life’ recreates the landscapes of Pink Floyd
Signs of Life, a Pink Floyd Tribute, 8 p.m. Friday, April 10, 20th Century Theatre, 3021 Madison Rd., Cincinnati. 21 and up only. $14 advance, $15 day of show. (513) 731-8000.
Jon Stirnkorb always loved music and always had a desire to learn to play guitar, but none of his friends and family played, so he never quite found the motivation he needed.
He was 20 years old when he found his inspiration. It was in row six of the Cincinnati Gardens, and no coincidence that David Gilmour of the band Pink Floyd was playing just a few yards in front of him.
“I was a huge fan at the time, but seeing them in concert just leveled me,” he said. “There was a real connection between the heart and the head, and his playing was so emotive that it touched me a profound way.”
So he set out to learn to play guitar like Glimour, which turned out to be a bigger problem than he realized.
“There’s no one in the are who could play like that, much less teach me to play like that,” he said. “They all have their methods, but they don’t really teach someone how to get out of the instrument what they desire.
“I had to absorb the records and concerts and get as much of his playing style that I could assimilate that way.”
He learned to play guitar well enough to join a couple of tribute bands, Savoy Truffle and Aja, but they were tributes to The Beatles and Steely Dan, respectively. So he set out to find a band of Pink Floyd aficionados to create Signs of Life, a band devoted exclusively to recreating the Pink Floyd sound as it is heard on the records.
“We all love Pink Floyd and come together to present their music, to get to the heart of the spaciousness of it and the Britishness of it,” he said.
The Signs of Life repertoire covers the entire Pink Floyd catalog, but focuses mainly on what Stirnkorb calls “the golden era,” mainly the 1970s, from the “Meddle” album to “The Wall.”
“We attempt to to listen closely to the records and capture them note-for-note, but also with the right feel and reverence for the parts.
“The most important thing about Pink Floyd is knowing what not to play, to leave holes for the music to breathe,” he said. “Most pop songs are three or four minutes long, but with many Pink Floyd songs, it takes that long just to set up the mood as they bubble and gurgle and glacially spread out over the landscape.”
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TweetPoetry coffee house set for West Chester Library
To celebrate April’s National Poetry Month the West Chester Library will host Teen Poetry Coffeehouse. The coffeehouse will be offered on Friday, April 17 and is for seventh grade through high school.
Music will be performed at 6:30 with poetry readings beginning at 7:00. The evening will end at 8:15.
Participants are encouraged to read either original or favorite poems. Registration is not required, but seating is limited.
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TweetMidday Music features Brahms, Beach
Midday Music in Oxford, Noon, Tuesday April 14, Oxford Presbyterian Church on 101 N. Main Street. Free. (513) 523-6969.
When Midday Music in Oxford director Jack Daugherty asked Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s violinist Stacey Woolley to put together a program to close out the season, Woolley already had ideas working.
“I’d been wanting to work with Elizabeth Freimuth (the CSO’s principal French horn) for while, and the repertoire that came to mind was the Brahms horn trio,” he said. “I dangled Sandra Rivers in front of her as the pianist and I think that sealed the deal.”
The horn trio is widely considered to be one of the premiere works for the French horn. The combination of horn, violin and piano was rare before Brahms, but its success led to many more such works being written.
Because Freimuth recently finished a challenging concert for the CSO, Woolley said that she didn’t want to do anything else for this concert, so he took advantage having Rivers playing with him to work on a series of violin and piano pieces composed by Amy Beach, who lived in New England at the turn of the century, shortly after Brahms’ time.
“She’s not a household name, but she was the foremost American composer of her era,” Woolley said, “and there’s been a lot of interest in her work lately.”
Beach was a child prodigy pianist and debuted with the Boston Symphony at age 16, then two years later married a much older man, a Boston surgeon, who insisted that she limit her concert appearances to one a year, so she turned her attention to composition.
“At first, she also wasn’t allowed any compositional study, so she got her hands on a copy of Berlioz’s ‘Treatise on Instrumentation’ and translated it herself,” Woolley said.
She wrote over 300 pieces in her career. Among the five pieces Rivers and Woolley will perform is a piece called “Romance,” that when she debuted it in 1893 the crowd stomped and clapped so hard that she and the violinist played it again.
“Her work is so well-crafted and gorgeous,” Wolley said, “while most of the music from her era would today only make good background music at Macy’s, they are meant to be listened to.”
photo of Sandra Rivers by Don Ventre.
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Tweet“Free and Freed Shakers” program at the Smith Library of Regional History
The Smith Library of Regional History will host “Free and Freed Shakers,” 1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 18 at the Oxford Lane Library.
Author Vickie Cimprich and Rev. Cheryl Hoskins will present dramatic monologues from “Pretty Mothers’ Home: A Shakeress Daybook” and music by the Western Shaker Singers (above) will highlight contributions of African-American Shakers.
Shakers lived in interracial communities even before slavery ended. This program is sponsored by the Arthur F. Miller African-American History Fund.
For more information about this and other programs at the Lane Libraries, call (513) 894-6557.
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TweetNewport Aquarium unveils first baby shark ray ever on display in United States
Newport Aquarium is now displaying the first Shark Ray pup to be seen in the United States, affectionately named Sunshine.
Sunshine is less than a year old, weighs about 25 pounds and comes from Penghu Island, off the coast of Taiwan. It’s believed to be the same place from where Sweet Pea, the Aquarium’s female Shark Ray and the first to be displayed in this hemisphere, came.
Newport Aquarium continues to lead the scientific community in the study of Shark Rays. The Aquarium also initiated the first-ever Shark Ray breeding program in the world. By closely monitoring the growth of Sunshine, Newport Aquarium biologists believe they will be better prepared for any future Shark Ray pups that might be born at the aquarium.
“This was the first time a Shark Ray has ever been transported so far, so young,” said Mark Dvornak, fish curator at Newport Aquarium, in a press release. “Her size and youth make her an extraordinary animal from which to learn. Newport Aquarium is committed to raising awareness about this species, in the hopes that public education will inspire global conservation efforts - not just for Shark Rays but for all endangered aquatic life.”
Sunshine will be on display in the Coral Reef display, a 60-thousand gallon “tunnel” exhibit through which visitors walk and are surrounded by aquatic life.
This week also marks the fourth anniversary for Sweet Pea at the Newport Aquarium, which will be celebrated through this weekend, ending April 12.
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TweetWest Chester Symphony ready to rock
Ohio is known for the Rock’N’Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and King Records in Cincinnati that recorded the great James Brown.
The West Chester Symphony joins this great Ohio rock’n’roll tradition with their “Rock the Night Away” Fundraiser, 5:30 p.m. April 18 at the Marriott North at Union Centre Blvd.
Radio personality Gary Burbank will be the master of ceremonies.
Local classic rock group BlueStone Ivory will be perform, and the symphony will join them for an evening of rock hits from the ’50s to ’80s.
The Marriott will be preparing a wonderful meal for the Symphony’s guests and a silent and live auction will take place to support the orchestra in their upcoming season.
Tickets are $55 per person and available until April 13 at (513) 398-9581 or (513) 777-9609.
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TweetThousands of titles available at Lane Libraries’ Used Book Sale
The Friends of the Hamilton Fairfield Lane Libraries will hold its Annual Used Book Sale on 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 2 and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 3 at the Butler County Fairgrounds at Ohio 4 and Fair Avenue in Hamilton.
The $10 a Box Sale will be Sunday from noon to close. Boxes will be provided.
For more information about this and other programs at the Lane Libraries, call (513) 894-6557.
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TweetCirque Dreams holds “Family Night” Wednesday, April 8
Cirque Dreams “Jungle Fantasy” kicks off its final week at the Aronoff Center for the Arts with Family Night.
The fun begins at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 8, with pre-show activities in the lobby including an opportunity to meet cast members, try on costumes and learn and participate in the skills, tricks and activities of which Cirque Dreams is world renowned.
Student Rush Tickets are available for all performances and may be purchased in person at the Aronoff Center Box Office two hours prior to each performance.
Tickets are half price and there is a limit of two tickets per student.
‘Jungle Fantasy’ comes to Cincinnati from Broadway
- Cirque Dreams “Jungle Fantasy,” 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 31-April 12, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati. $19-$55. On-line or by phone at 1-800-982-2787. Image set REVIEW.
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TweetGot a story about Warren County? Enter writing contest
The Warren County Arts Council has announced a competition for stories concerning a Warren County arts location, work of art or arts activity.
Stories must be original fiction only no longer than 1,000 words.
Entrants may submit in one of two categories: ages 10-18 and ages 19 and older.
All entries must be postmarked no later than May 30.
There is an entry fee of $5 per story by check made out to the Warren County Arts Council.
Prizes of $75.00 will be awarded to the winner in each age category and certificates will be awarded for second and third-place.
All winners will be invited to read their winning entries at the Warren County Festival of the Arts Saturday, June 27, 2009.
Manuscripts should be sent to Warren County Arts Council, Attn: 2009 Fiction Contest, 726 E. Main St. Suite F #279, Lebanon, OH 45036
Additional information on the submission process can be found at the Arts Council web site or send an e-mail to janet@janirvin.com.
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TweetNew Stage Collective closing up shop after season finale
New Stage Collective has announced that it will not produce a 2009-10 season and will shut down permanently when it closes “A Little Night Music” on May 10.
“A Little Night Music will serve as the swan song for New Stage Collective,” said producing artistic director Alan Patrick Kenny, who co-founded the company with Joshua Steele in 2003.
“The support from the community has been spectacular throughout our company’s entire history,” Kenny said. “Unfortunately, we are in a new economic reality. In the past we were able to present amazing works of theatre using incredibly talented artists and very few resources. In this new economic reality, the artistic ideas and the talent remain, but the resources do not. I feel we truly did everything we could to survive, but at the end of the day the board and I made the only responsible decision.”
Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” opens April 30. Details to come.
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TweetHumana Festival review: Under Construction
In the beginning, the narrator tells us which scenes the ensemble is going to perform, rattling off a list of numbers as if they mean anything, explaining that this is the set of scenes this particular group chose to present and that future productions of “Under Construction” will be totally different because, like America, this play is always, well, under construction.
The next hour and a half is consumed with bits of poetry, monologue, story, song, dance, movement and real construction. A man is wrapped in duct tape. Another spends a good portion of the show naked and rolled up in a large sheet of paint-splattered plastic. A woman takes a microphone into the audience to ask people pointed questions about their sex lives. A salesman reads the back covers of pulp romance novels.
“Under Construction” is not the most inscrutable of Charles Mee’s plays, but is certainly one of the most improvisational and free-style.an
The one thing the various scenes have in common, it seems, is the sense of intention, of trying to explain the unexplainable, of the stage trying on different landscapes to see what works and what doesn’t.
There are moments of poignancy (“I wish I knew more people here,” a woman writes in her blog. “I feel like a nobody in a sea of nobodies”), and moments of discomfort and embarrassment (a couple of people left in the middle and others expressed their bafflement at the end), and moments of sheer silliness, but succeeds in expressing a curious world view and an acceptance of the constantly changing nature of culture.
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
Review of “ Ameriville”
Review of “ Slasher”
Review of “Brink!”
Review of “Wild Blessings”
Review of “The Hard Weather Boating Party”
Review of the Ten Minute Plays
Review of “Absalom”
Photos by Harlan Taylor
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TweetHumana Festival review: Absalom
I have left Zoe Kazan’s “Absalom” with mixed feelings.
I was touched by the complicated emotions and the tangled web of relationships in this family story, the feelings of abandonment and regrets, the desire to get back to the way things were.
Kazan’s script seems honest, even painfully so, and the acting is strong, the characters fully drawn even as they play to rather conventional family dynamics.
The action takes place on the day of and morning after the party to release the family patriarch’s autobiography, which promises to reveal some family secrets that others would prefer remain secret.
Saul Weber is famous partly for his novels, but mostly as an editor and the discoverer of young talent. Indeed, everyone in the family is a writer, even the daughter-in-law, mother of a new-born who writes to escape the rigors of parenting, and a sort of adopted son, who may actually have written Saul’s novel.
The various issues are not resolved, however, but only further complicated by more acts of deception and manipulation.
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
Review of “ Ameriville”
Review of “ Slasher”
Review of “Brink!”
Review of “Wild Blessings”
Review of “The Hard Weather Boating Party”
Review of the Ten Minute Plays
Photos by Harlan Taylor
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TweetHumana Festival review: Ten-Minute Plays
In the spirit of the 10-Minute Plays, I will attempt twitter-length (140 characters) reviews (not counting play title) ….
‘On the Porch One Crisp Spring Morning” by Alex Dremann”:
mother-daughter both spies, poison coffee,commercial tone,double-cross, barter 4 antidote, twisty plot, surprise end, funny but sketch-y
“3:59 a.m.: a drag race for two actors” by Marco Ramirez
two actors in spots,two stories come together on unfamiliar streets,intense writing,charged performances, 10 minutes well-spent
“Roanoke” by Michael Lew
living history, missing colony, actors in bad careers,raleigh tells it like it is,colorful performances,fun comedy,also sketch-y
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
Review of “ Ameriville”
Review of “ Slasher”
Review of “Brink!”
Review of “Wild Blessings”
Review of “The Hard Weather Boating Party”
Photos by Harlan Taylor
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TweetHumana Festival review: The Hard Weather Boating Party
In the program notes, Naomi Wallace’s “The Hard Weather Boating Party” purports to be an exploration of the lives of people living in Louisville’s district known as Rubbertown, formerly a tire-making center now given over to chemical production.
And indeed, the characters - three men gathered in seedy hotel room as they prepare to commit a crime against the CEO of the company they work for, a company whose processes expose them to life-threatening chemicals.
But the context in which their circumstances are revealed is so bizarre and unconvincing that her point is lost.
The realistic style seems to be in conflict with the allegorical intent of the story, and the three men, one executive who called them together and two men who work in the factory, behave in ways that break down the suspension of disbelief. That is, it seems unlikely that men of this sort would play “Truth or Dare” as a trust-building ice-breaker,” or that the sexual tension would be so strong among them.
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
Review of “ Ameriville”
Review of “ Slasher”
Review of “Brink!”
Review of “Wild Blessings”
Photo by Harlan Taylor
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TweetHumana Festival Review: Wild Blessings, A Celebration of Wendell Berry
Even being the professional English Major that I am with a degree in poetry, I had never delved so much into the work of Wendell Berry as I just have in the production of “Wild Blessings: A Celebration of Wendell Berry,” but now I feel as though I must go buy a book of verse.
This is an Actors Theatre original, adapted for the stage and directed by the troupe’s artistic director Marc Masterson with music by Malcolm Dalglish, a hammer dulcimer player from Bloomington, Ind., who has found the melody in Berry’s free verse.
Berry is the Mad Farmer who espouses an existence that celebrates hard work, free thinking, and simple and sustainable living, and his poetry strives to not break the silence from which it sprang (I paraphrase).
Oddly enough, one of his admonitions is to live clear of screens, but one of the beauties of “Wild Blessings” is the multi-media components with layers of projected images: A large screen of a window center stage and scenes of nature projected onto a cyclorama behind.
This is the second play of the festival (so far) that seems created by committee, though “Wild Blessings” is a walk through the forest where “Ameriville” was a helicopter flight over a disaster area.
Both have their uses, but I particularly like the stroll, especially when accompanied by the likes of the gentle Mad Farmer.
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
Review of “ Ameriville”
Review of “ Slasher”
Review of “Brink!”
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TweetMiami art prof writes book on African-American artists
Miami University professor and chair of the art department, dele jegede, has recently published “Encyclopedia of African American Artists: Artists of the American Mosaic” with Greenwood Press (Westport, Conn., 2009).
The book is about the work, life and times of key African and African American artists, with an emphasis on the extent to which their work represents a visual text of the times in which they live and the significance of culture on their expressive output. It is the first major work that brings together a mosaic of artists from the Black Diaspora who have lived and worked, or continue to do so, in the United States.
The book includes entries on 66 individuals with eight pages of color plates and black and white images throughout. From traditional media of painting and artists such as Horace Pippin and Faith Ringgold, to photography of Gordon Parks, to new media of Sam Gilliam and installation art of Martin Puryear, the African American experience is reflected across generations and works. Other artists include: Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Okwui Enwezor, Aminah Brenda Robinson, Wangechi Mutu, Kara Walker and Melvin Edwards.
jegede has taught in diverse environments and served in academic, professional and leadership capacities locally and internationally. He joined Miami’s faculty in 2005. He earned a doctorate in art history at Indiana University, Bloomington and obtained his first degree in fine art from the Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria.
He was a Fulbright Scholar at Spelman College in 1987; director of the Center for Cultural Studies, University of Lagos, 1989-1992; president, Society of Nigerian Artists, 1989-1992; senior post-doctoral fellow at the National Museum of African Art, the Smithsonian Institution, 1995; president, Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), 1996-1998; and professor and chair, department of art, Indiana State University, 2002-2005.
As an art historian, jegede’s research is concerned with the contemporary and popular arts of Africa. As a painter, he draws on iconic elements in African and Western cultures. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions.
He has published extensively in his field and curated major shows, including “Women to Women: Weaving Cultures, Shaping History,” Terre Haute, 2000 and “Contemporary African Art: Five Artists, Diverse Trends,” Indianapolis Museum of Art, 2000.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Literary, Miami University
TweetMiami faculty, grad student receive grants for Individual Excellence from Ohio Arts Council
Miami professors Kay Sloan, English, and Ellen Price, art, have been awarded Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). Also honored is Dorothy Maxwell Goepel of Cincinnati, who earned a Miami master’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing. The award to each is $5,000.
Sloan, who supervised Goepel’s master’s thesis, says receiving the OAC the same year as her student “makes the award more deeply rewarding for me, personally.”
The OAC approved 59 awards totaling $300,000 in late February. Individual Excellence Awards are peer recognition of creative artists for the exceptional merit of a body of work that advances or exemplifies the discipline and the larger artistic community. These awards support artists’ growth and development and recognize their work in Ohio and beyond in 13 different disciplines. The process is competitive: only about 8 percent of applicants are granted awards.
Sloan, who joined Miami’s faculty in 1984, will use the fellowship to complete research and writing of a collection of interlocking stories set in New York between the 1930s and 1970s.
“The main characters, an ordinary Jewish couple swept up in the exuberant idealism of Communist ideology in their youth, annually attend an adults-only socialist camp in the Adirondacks,” she said in a press release. “This collection will look at the lives of ordinary families who saw the Party as a lively, daring intellectual and social arena.”
One of the central stories, “A Stain on the Sofa,” appeared in Fiction Magazine last fall and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Sloan’s earlier two novels, “Worry Beads” and “The Patron Saint of Red Chevys,” also explored pivotal historical eras in U.S. history. Sloan has published three books on American cultural history and received a previous OAC award in 2002. Her documentary film, “Suffragettes in the Silent Cinema,” was funded by an Ohio Humanities Council grant.
Price, who joined Miami’s faculty in 1987, previously received OAC grants in 1996 and 2001. Her prints are included in public and private collections, including the Cincinnati Art
Museum, Brockton Art Museum, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska and the 3M Corporate Art Collection. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include “7th Lessedra World Mini-Print Annual” in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2008; “New Prints/Winter” shown at the International Print Center in Chelsea, N.Y. and Columbia College in Chicago, 2009; and an invitational group exhibition, “Making a Legacy, Living the Legacy” at the Cincinnati Art Museum in 2006.
Goepel’s award supports her non-fiction work, a collection of remembrances of her deceased mother and father, whom she recalls as a walking contrast in ethnicity and culture, as well as the key place of her youth, a Mexican American neighborhood on the West Side of San Antonio, Texas.
Goepel received her undergraduate degree at the University of Cincinnati. She taught part time in the English departments of Miami, Xavier, the University of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University. She recently completed a tour of duty as acting superintendent of the 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs Office, Shaw Air Force Base, Sumter, S.C., as a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve where, among leadership and management duties, she designed and taught five writing workshops.
“St John’s” by Miami art professor Ellen Price (paper plate lithography, 16’ x 10’), one of 12 prints Price submitted for an OAC Individual Excellence Award.
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TweetMU Chamber Singers, Glee Club perform spring concerts
Miami University Chamber Singers, conducted by William Bausano, 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, Hall Auditorium. Free. (513) 529-3014.
The group of select male and female voices will perform works from the Renaissance courts of France, 19th Century Russian Cathedrals, and contemporary America.
The Miami University Men’s Glee Club, directed by Ethan Sperry, will perform its annual spring concert at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 17 and 18 in Hall Auditorium.
The choir will perform pieces written especially for the Club by its own members, alumni, as well as current and former Miami professors. Also performed will be a variety of pieces including African-American spirituals, broadway showtunes, and other Glee Club favorites.
Tickets are $5 students/youth and $7 general. Tickets are available at the box office in Shriver Center, (513) 529-3200.
For more information, call the department of music at (513) 529-3014.
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TweetHumana Festival review: Brink!
One of the traditions at the Humana Festival is the annual anthology plays in which the Actors Theatre commissions a set of playwrights to create short plays and vignettes on a specified theme.
This year, the show is called “Brink!” with a series of pieces centered on the “magico-religious aspect of crossing frontiers.” That is, our life changes and the rituals that go along with them.
This is one of the better ones I’ve seen, and one of the reasons is that there are a couple of different story lines that run through the 90-minute piece. “Grandpa’s Cologne,” a two-song musical by Kristoffer Diaz and Greg Kotis, tells the story of a young man preparing for his first date with an older woman, a seventh-grader who just moved into his condo complex. The first song is a rap and the second a catchy little jingle, and a pair of Greek soldiers find life-long companionship on their way to fight Trojans.
Highlights include “Today I Am Woman” by Deborah Zoe Laufer in which a young woman spouts quotes from Sartre and Camus making a statement at her bat mitzvah but ends up daddy’s little girl when it comes time to dance. Laufer also contributes “Evolution,” the tale of the first sea creature to venture onto dry land. In “The White Bread Ballet” by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb and Deborah Stein, a girl tries to run away from the circus to become an accountant in Cincinnati, but sees that life flash in front of her in a dance set to overwrought movie music.
I find it a little surprising that more schools and community theater groups don’t pick up on these Humana anthology shows for productions. They have good writing for the most part, are usually funny and have lots of roles but could also be done by a talented smaller ensemble.
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
Review of “ Ameriville”
Review of “ Slasher”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theater
TweetHumana Festival review: Slasher
Allison Moore’s “Slasher” is one of those plays that explores, perhaps inadvertantly, how much a story can be like what it satirizes before it actually becomes the thing that it satirizes.
That is, is it possible to make a play making fun of contemporary blood-and-gore and not succumb to the cliches of the genre?
Probably not, in this case, but that’s not really such a bad thing.
“Slasher” is a dark comedy about Sheena, a young Texas woman working at a bar where the secret to good tips is having and showing off a good body. Her assets gather the attention of Marc Hunter, a filmmaker who is back in his hometown after beginning his film career in L.A. to make a horror film where the costs, and the talent, are cheaper.
Neither of them realize that Sheena’s invalid mother Frances can trace the roots of her affliction (chronic fatigue) back to an incident involving Hunter, so she makes up her mind to stop the production and save her daughter from the degradation of being in such a film. She enlists the aid of a deceptively perky member of the Holy Shepherd Justice League, a hyper-moral watchdog group implicated in the bombing of a nearby abortion clinic.
As a satire, “Slasher” is deliciously over-the-top with more camp than a national park, and draws a lot of laughter, even if you feel a little guilty being amused at the silliness.
Moore also makes “Slasher” to be of the genre it makes fun of, with a bathtub full of blood and music that rises at every opportunity for a good scare, even if it’s a false alarm.
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
Review of “Ameriville”
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TweetHumana Festival review: Ameriville
If the rest of the plays at the festival have the same level of energy and intensity as “Ameriville,” I don’t know if I’ll have the energy to get home Sunday.
“Ameriville” is the creation of an ensemble known as UNIVERSES, who has created this collage of monologues, vaudeville, rhyme and song, using gospel, classic rock, folk, hip-hop and just about every form of American entertainment you can imagine in a 90-minute critique of post-Katrina America.
Although the action spins on the losses suffered in New Orleans, that disaster serves only as the axis. The entire nation — from our inadequate health care system, to our illegal immigration issues, our prison culture and our contributions to global warming — comes under indictment.
Okay, so it gets a little preachy at times, but it doesn’t dwell on any one issue too long to drive it into the ground. Maybe that’s a flaw of its own, but the multi-media presentation never pauses long enough for it to be an issue. It’s the kind of show whose sound and sense lingers after the curtain call.
Official site: The Humana Festival of New American Plays
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TweetThings to do this weekend
kids/family
Children’s Theatre of Mason explore Never Never Land
- The Children’s Theatre Of Mason presents “Peter Pan” by J.M. Barrie, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 3-4 and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5, Mason High School Auditorium, 6100 Mason-Montgomery Road, Mason. $8 advance; $10 adults, $8 students/seniors at the door. (513) 398-0116.
Middletown actress Christine Brunner in production of “Charlotte’s Web’
- The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati presents “Charlotte’s Web,” by Joseph Robinette, based on the story by E.B. White, with original music by Cincinnati singer/songwriter Katie Laur and puppets created by Joe Kovacs and Andy Gaukel, 2 p.m. Saturday April 4 at the Taft Theatre , 317 East Fifth St., Cincinnati. $7-$20. (513) 562-4949, or online at www.ticketmaster.com.
Program at Lane Library is meant to be puzzling
- Puzzle Me Poetic for children ages 8-12, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, April 4 at the Fairfield Lane Library, 1485 Corydale Dr., Fairfield. Celebrate April as National Poetry Month and have fun creating impromptu Haiku and Mad-Lib poems, and solving other poetry puzzles. Registration required. (513) 858-3238, ext. 360.
‘Jungle Fantasy’ comes to Cincinnati from Broadway
- Cirque Dreams “Jungle Fantasy,” 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 31-April 12, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati. $19-$55. On-line or by phone at 1-800-982-2787. Image set REVIEW.
Not your grandpa’s dinosaurs: These have feathers!
- “Dinosaurs Unearthed,” non-members: $15 adults, $10 children; members: $10 adults, $7 children. Open until 9 p.m. Friday. “Dinosaurs Alive,” OmniMax Theatre, non-members: $7.50 adults, $6.50 seniors, $5.50 children; members: $5.50 adults; $4.50 children. Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Ave., Cincinnati. (513) 287-7000.
“ April is Kids Month at EnterTRAINment Junction
- EnterTRAINment Junction, 7379 Squire Ct., West Chester. $12.95 adults, $9.95 $7 kids 3-12. (513) 898-8000.
Covedale Theatre presents ‘Peter Pan’
- “Peter Pan” by J.M. Barrie, music by Mark Charlap and lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, March 26-April 11, Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, 4990 Glenway Ave., Cincinnati. $21 adults, $19 seniors/students. (513) 241-6550.
Check our GOING OUT GUIDE for a big list of things to do with your children.
nitelife
Blues Merchants set up shop in Ryan’s Tavern
- strong>The Blues Merchants, 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 4, Ryan’s Tavern, 241 High St., Hamilton, (513) 737-2200.
Big list of places to gather and things to do there in this weekend’s GOING OUT GUIDE.
concerts/music
Miami Steel Band welcomes Ray Holman
- The Miami University Steel Band with Ray Holman, 8 p.m. Friday, April 3, Hall Auditorium, Miami University, Oxford. $5 students, youth and senior citizens and $7 other adults. (513) 529-3200.
Triage: original jazz with global roots at Fairfield CAC
- Jazz Alive! series presents Triage, featuring Eugene Goss, 3 p.m. Sunday, April 5, Fairfield Community Arts Center, 411 Wessel Dr., Fairfield. $12 adults, $10 seniors/students. (513) 867-5348.
Renaissance music on tap for Sunday Sounds
- The Fairfield Lane Library continues the Sunday Sounds series with Alegria on Sunday, April 5 from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. Enjoy this classical guitar and lute duo and a free cup of coffee. The Fairfield Lane Library is located at 1485 Corydale Dr.
Xavier pianist performs for Xavier series
- Pianist Michael Chertock, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 5, Gallagher Student Center Theatre, Xavier University. $17-$19 adults, $14-$16 seniors; 43 students. (513) 745-3161.
Paul Thorn wants to save your soul
- The Paul Thorn Band with Patrick Sweany, 8 p.m. Sunday, April 5, the Southgate House, 24 E. Third St., Newport. $18 advance; $22 day of show. Non-smoking show. (859) 431-2201.
theater/performing arts
MamLuft&Co. presents evening of dance at the Aronoff Center
- MamLuft&Co. Dance presents “Black Box,” 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 3-4, Fifth Third Bank Theatre, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati. $20 adults; $17 students; $15 seniors. (513) 621-2787.
Special events planned for ‘Stalag 17’ production
- “Stalag 17,” By Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Mariemont Players Walton Creek Theater, 4101 Walton Creek Road, Cincinnati. $17. (513) 684-1236.
Rare stamps center of intrigue in Ensemble Theatre’s ‘Mauritiu$’
- “Mauritius” by Theresa Rebeck, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, 1127 Vine St., Cincinnati. $29-$38. (513) 421-3555. REVIEW: ‘Mauritiu$ about power, control and money — and stamps.
Award-winning drama ‘Doubt’ at Human Race Theatre
- “Doubt: A Parable” by John Patrick Shanley, Human Race Theatre Company production,8 p.m. 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, the Loft Theatre, 126 N. Main, Dayton. Box Office: (937) 228-3630.
New Stage Collective presents ‘Bent’
- “Bent” by Martin Sherman, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, New Stage Collective, 1140 Main St., Cincinnati. $20 general; $16 senior; $12 students. (513) 621-3700. Content Warning: for Mature Audiences - ages 17 and up.REVIEW: ‘Bent’ an odd but powerful drama.
Mount St. Joseph mounts Andrew Lloyd Webber classic
- “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, College Theatre, The College of Mount St. Joseph. $8 adult, $5 students/seniors/children. (513) 244-4683.
Cincinnati Playhouse presents Larry Shue’s ‘The Foreigner’.
- “The Foreigner” by Larry Shue, Marx Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $27-$55. (513) 421-3888. MORE: REVIEW: ‘The Foreigner’: Funny but pointless.
‘Last Train to Nibroc’ the story of young love
- “Last Train to Nibroc” by Arlene Hutton, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays, April 2-26; previews begin March 28, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. $47-$57 ($41 preview performances). (513) 421-3888.
‘Comedy of Errors’ turns into science fiction camp
- “The Comedy of Errors” by William Shakespeare, 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through April 26, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, 719 Race St., Cincinnati. $26 adults, $22 seniors and $20 students. (513) 381-2273.
Trimmed down ‘Camelot’ highlights comedy, music
- La Comedia Dinner Theatre presents “Camelot,” brunch arrival starts at 10:30 a.m.; dinner arrival starts at 5:30 p.m. $51-$69. 765 W. Central Ave., Springboro. (800) 677-9505.
Shadowbox goes ‘Wild’ with its new show
- “Born to Be Wild,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Shadowbox Cabaret, Newport on the Levee. $30. (859) 581-7625.
galleries/exhibitions
Carnegie exhibit explores ‘Different Directions’ for artists
- “Different Directions… an artist’s perspective,” opening reception 6-9 p.m. Friday, April 3, Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, 1028 Scott St., Covington, (859) 491-2030.
“Miami Printmakers” show their stuff…
- “Miami Printmakers,” Fairfield Community Arts Center, 411 Wessel Dr., Fairfield. (513) 867-5348.
Glenn Julian art exhibition at Knolls’ Gallery
- Works by Glenn M. Julian, the Commons Gallery at the Knolls of Oxford, 6727 Contreras Rd., Oxford. (513) 524-7990.
Chuck Marshall exhibit at Gallery 42
- “Awakening: Path to Spirituality,” paintings by Chuck Marshall, Gallery 42 Fine Art, 105 E. Main St., Mason. (513) 234-7874. Closed Sunday.
Exhibition at Manifest Gallery examines story-telling
- “Mythography: An Exploration of Narrative” and Selections from the Fourth International Drawing Annual exhibit-in-print, Manifest Gallery and Drawing Center, 2727 Woodburn Ave., Cincinnati. Exhibition continues through April. 3. (513) 861-3638.
M.U. Art Museum exhibits work by faculty, former students
- “Miami University Department of Art 2009 Bicentennial Exhibition,” Miami University Art Museum, 801 S. Patterson Ave., Oxford. (513) 523-2232. ALSO ON VIEW: “Paintings, Prints and Sculpture: Selections from the Permanent Collection” and “Dialogue with Nature: New Conceptions of Organic Architecture, Miami University Department of Architecture and Interior Design Fallingwater Honors Studio,”
Exhibition explores Miami’s Greek history
- “Brotherhood and Sisterhood: The Art and Artifacts of Greek Letter Societies at Miami University, 1833-2008,” McGuffey Museum, 410 E. Spring St., Oxford. Focuses on traditions and lore of Greek letter societies and includes badges and profiles of campus landmarks such as the Phi Delta Theta campus gates. Closed Tuesday. (513) 529-8380.
“Dreamstates: Surrealist Art on view at Cincinnati Art Museum”
- Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Dr., Cincinnati. Closed Monday. (513) 639-2995. ALSO ON VIEW: “Isn’t It Great To Be An Artist? Insider/Outsider Art;” “Stewart Goldman: Presence through Absence”.
New work by Tara Donovan at Contemporary Arts Center
- Contemporary Arts Center, 44 E. 6th Street, Cincinnati. (513) 345-8400. ALSO ON VIEW: “Donald Sultan: The First Decade”
Film costumes on view at Taft Museum of Art
- “Fashion in Film,” featuring 36 costumes from period films, Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Cincinnati. $12 adults; $10 students/seniors; $4 children. (513) 241-0343. ALSO ON VIEW: “Small Paintings,” offering an intimate look at collecting at the turn of the 20th century,
Country Club Gallery presents dual exhibition
- “Cheryl Dunn: Spit & Peanut Shells - American Pictures” and “Antonio Adams: Art Thing & the Orgllycreeks & Common Surprise,” Country Club, 424 Findlay St., Cincinnati. Closed Sunday. (513) 792-9744.
Things To Do are also Things That Change and sometimes Things That Sell Out, so be sure to contact the venue before showing up without tickets …
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TweetJungle Fantasy is a colorful and energetic show
REVIEW
Cirque Dreams “Jungle Fantasy,” 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, March 31-April 12, Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut, Cincinnati. $19-$55. On-line or by phone at 1-800-982-2787.
There’s not a feat in Cirque Dreams “Jungle Fantasy” that isn’t standard fare for a circus, but the context and style of the elaborate production still makes for a thrilling evening.
Walking into the theater and seeing the bright green jungle set, I heard a lady standing nearby sneer, “Looks like a kids cartoon.” I said, “What a cool set!”
The costumes are even wilder and more colorful, from over-sized animal heads to skin-tight snake costumes the quartet of contortionists.
Interview with producer Neil Godberg
++++++++++
All of the performers, all from the Broadway run of the show, were not only skillful but artfully practiced. A couple does a pas de deux on a trapeze in the second act that is as tightly choreographed and smoothly performed as any ballet — and the aforementioned contortionists were among the most limber and fluid I’ve seen.
My only real complaint is that the music is sounds cheesily synthesized. Some of it was performed live by a violinist in a tree costume, but even his tones were sampled, and not particularly well. But the fake music didn’t much take away the fun of watching a frog play the drums with juggling balls, though it would have been better had we heard the drums and not the samples he triggered.
Other acts include an elaborate jump rope routine (pictured above), a couple of different aerial acts, including one with beautifully flowing butterfly costumes, and a duo of men doing an amazing balancing act in giraffe costumes (never mind that giraffes don’t live in the jungle).
Many of the acts are performed with good humor, and there are a few running gags (watch for the emus!) and some comic bits, but there’s no clown act, which seems remiss in a production of this sort.
It’s a good show for the whole family too, with only a little mild innuendo.
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TweetMad Anthony Writer’s Conference getting ready
The Mad Anthony Writer’s Conference, 7 to 9:30 p.m. Friday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 17-18. Wilks Center, Miami University Hamilton. $125 in advance; $140 day of event. (800) 311-5353.
Whether you’re interested in pursuing writing as career or a hobby, or if you’re already a professional writer looking to enhance your skills, the Mad Anthony Writers Conference may be able to help.
“We will have programs for any writer in any genre,” said event co-chair Jane Biddinger. “Fiction, non-fiction, children’s writers, science fiction — I think we have it all covered. The conference takes place Friday evening and all day Saturday at the Wilks Conference Center on the Hamilton Campus if Miami University.
While local writers are encouraged to attend, co-chair Vickie Ryan said that only about 10 percent of the attendees are from Hamilton, and 31 percent of the registrants are from out of state.
“Part of our mission is to bring people into Hamilton,” Ryan said, “The conference is great for the local economy as we have people coming from New York, Vermont, Oregon, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia and lots of large and small cities in between. We’ve been recommended on writers’ blogs from as far away as South Africa and California.”
“But we also want the conference to be something people in Hamilton and Butler County will take advantage of.”
One thing missing from this year’s event will be the book fair portion at the recommendation of Barnes & Noble, who handled that portion of the event in years past.
“We are not having a book festival for the public, but we will have a smaller version set up for conference attendees with books by the presenters and a selection of how-to books about writing,” Ryan said.
Mad Anthony Police Academy
The Mad Anthony Writers Conference will include a special Police-Fire Academy for those interested in writing crime fiction on non-fiction.
Organized by Lee Lofland, a regular presenter at the Mad Anthony Writers Conference, the academy takes place in two parts. The first section will be 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, April 17, at the Hamilton YWCA prior to the main portion of the conference.
Cost for this portion of the event is $45 and includes tours of the Hamilton police station and the Butler County Morque, as well as speakers from federal law enforcement agencies and a forensic psychologist.
The second portion of the academy takes place along with the rest of the Mad Anthony Writers Conference Saturday, April 18, at the Wilks Center on the Miami University Hamilton Campus.
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TweetSakura Anime Festival at the Hamilton Lane Library
Give a nod to Cherry Blossom (Sakura) Festival season during the Sakura Anime Festival at the Hamilton Lane Library.
Adults 18 and older up are invited to view newer Anime additions and classic faves in the Lane collection, with a chance to debate the finer points afterwards.
Scheduled events:
“The Place Promised In Our Early Days,” From Makoto Shinkai, creator of “Voices of a Distant Star,” 7 p.m. Thursday, April 23
View a variety of anime, including “Paradise Kiss,” “Pumpkin Scissors,” “Ouran High School Host Club” and D. “Gray-Man, noon Saturday, April 25.
For more information about this and other programs at the Lane Libraries, please call (513) 894-6557.
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TweetKite Fest ready to take flight
Kite Fest, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Voice of America Park and Museum, 8070 Tylersville Road, West Chester Twp. Free admission; $2 parking. (513) 241-8282. visit
Parking: Except for a limited number of handicapped spaces, all parking for this year’s Kite Fest will be off-site at: Hopewell Elementary, 8300 Cox Road; Lakota East High School, 6840 Lakota Lane; and Miami University Voice of America facility, near the Cox Road entrance to VOA Park. Shuttle buses will take visitors to the festival grounds.
The skies will seem to come alive this weekend at Voice of America Park in West Chester Twp. as the fifth annual Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Kite Fest takes flight.
With its relatively high elevation and open fields, the park is the perfect place to fly a kite, said Debbie Von Bokern, a founding member of the Cincinnati Pigs Aloft Kite Club, which meets at VOA Park the second Sunday of each month.
“Places we used to go would either have circular winds or obstacles,” she said. “But out there, the fields are open and the winds are clean.”
Von Bokern said she and her husband started flying kites when they saw people flying unusual kites while on a vacation about 15 years ago.
“My husband wanted to fly them,” she said. “It didn’t sound like much fun at first, but it is. I’m an artist, so I saw that I could also make kites, and it’s really fun to watch them fly.”
Von Bokern said the first kite she made was a 8-foot long pterodactyl with a 16-foot wingspan.
“I started out making kites from patterns that I know would fly,” she said. “They’re already designed, but you can put your own artwork on them. Sometimes you alter the pattern enough that you’ll have to teach the kite how to fly.”
Jerry McGuire, another of the Pigs Aloft founders, also got bitten by the kite bug while on vacation in Florida about 20 years ago.
“We were driving along Fort Myers beach and I saw a kite in the air that was obviously being controlled by someone, so I went back and started talking to the guy,” he said.
The next day, he bought his first stunt kite and took it back home to Michigan, where he lived at the time, and first flew it at a winter festival that was having a kite fly-in, and the hobby took off from there. Now McGuire said he’s not sure how many kites he actually owns.
“I stopped counting at about 300,” he said, “but like any other hobby, they get more and more sophisticated and expensive.”
Some of his favorites are a 100-foot octopus and a 68-foot fish, both inflatable kites that look like giant stuffed animals when they fly — and offer so much wind resistance that their strings have 1,800-pound strength rating and need to be staked to the ground lest they lift their flier up into the wild blue.
At this year’s Kite Fest, there will be demonstrations of the various types of kites as well as a special program by the Chicago Fire Kite Flying Team, which will present a “kite ballet” with six kites flying in sync to recorded music.
“Each member of that team is a national champion,” McGuire said.
His club also has invited six other out-of-state fliers who will bring in their large show kites.
Other activities include:
Kite-making stations for kids to make their own kites for a nominal fee;
“Running of the Boles” parachute races for kids and their families;
Kite vendors;
Public spaces open for flying kites (bring your own or purchase one from a vendor); and
An indoor kite display at the Voice of America Museum.
“It’s all about putting smiles on faces,” McGuire said. “People ask me why I would spend so much money on a kite, and I just say, ‘You should see your face in mirror right now.’”
PHOTO by Nick Graham: Debbie Von Bokern flies a soft inflatable kite preparing for the fifth annual Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Kite Fest.
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TweetYoung performers encouraged to join Encore Youth Theatre
Encore Youth Theatre will hold auditions for its summer 2009 production of “Once Upon A Mattress” 6:30 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday, May 3 and 5 at Garfield Middle School, 250 N. Fair Ave., Hamilton.
Call-backs, if needed will be Wednesday, May 6.
Come prepared to sing and dance… a CD player and an accompanist will be provided.
All participants must be a resident of Butler County and be between the ages of entering 7th grade and 2009 high school graduate.
Registration fee for Encore will be $30, payable at the first rehearsal…this includes two meals and the cast party. T-shirts will be available at an additional cost.
The first meeting of the cast will be 6:30 p.m. June 1, at Parrish Auditorium, Miami University Hamilton. This is a mandatory meeting and a parent must accompany the cast member.
Rehearsals will begin on Monday, June 8, 2009 from 6:30 - 10:00 p.m. four nights per week. A cast member is allowed four excused absences during the rehearsal period.
Directors are Rhonda Lucas and Scott Christian.
Questions? email: encoreyouththeatre@gmail.com or call (513) 291-0135 or (513) 465-6369.
Production dates are July 29-Aug. 1 in Parrish Auditorium, Miami University Hamilton Campus. Tickets are $15 adults, $12 senior and children 10 and under. For tickets, call (513) 675-5437 June 1.
ABOUT ENCORE: Encore is a non-profit theatre program which was founded in 1994 by a group of individuals interested in providing a meaningful theater experience for young people. Many Encore alumni have gone on to study music, musical theatre, or drama in college and several have proceeded to make this their career.
SYNOPSIS FOR ‘ONCE UPON A MATTRESS’: Due to an unhappy curse, King Sextimus is unable to speak. Meanwhile, his terror of a wife, Queen Aggravian, has taken over control of the kingdom. Most importantly, in an attempt to keep Prince Dauntless single, she has decreed that only the princess that can pass her test may marry her son. Further, no one else in the kingdom may marry until Prince Dauntless does. Lady Larken and Sir Harry are extremely disturbed by this fact since Lady Larken is now pregnant with Sir Harry’s baby. Luckily, Sir Harry is able to find an amazing princess, Winnifred the Woebegone. She instantly catches the attention of Prince Dauntless, and in the end, is able to pass the Queen’s supposedly impassable sensitivity test. When the Queen still tries to prevent the Prince Dauntless from marrying, he tells her to ‘shut up’ which ends up breaking the curse on the king. Now able to speak, King Sextimus regains his rightful position as leader of the kingdom, and all is well. (Source: stageagent.com)
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TweetMiami Theatre journeys to ‘Urinetown’
“Urinetown: The Musical,” at 8 p.m. April 9-11 and 16-18, 2 p.m. April 19, Gates-Abegglen Theatre, Center for Performing Arts, at Miami University. $6 students and youth, $8 senior citizens and $9 for other adults. Tickets are available at the box office in the Shriver Center or (513) 529-3200.
As the stage manager for Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Suann Pollock has about 20 musicals under her belt, and about 15 more as a free-lance director.
Now as she makes her first journey to “Urinetown,” which she is now directing for Miami University Theatre, she says she’s never been involved in anything quite like it.
She first saw it on the national tour when it came to Cincinnati because a former Playhouse colleague had a role.
“I remember thinking what an odd wonderful musical this was in the huge barn of the Aronoff Center,” she said. “It was the type of show that calls for the actors to constantly break the fourth wall, and I wanted it to really have that kind of intimacy.”
So for the Miami production, she had the designers extend the stage out into the audience more to have the orchestra and chorus behind the action and to take advantage of the lighting rigs at the front and sides of the stage, as in her last directorial effort at Miami, “Seussical the Musical.”
“I love putting it on a whole new level,” she said. “It helps isolate the characters in a very Brechtian way and allows them to camp it up.”
She said the play is an odd creature because it’s both very modern but also a throw-back to the work of the WPA theater projects back in the 1930s with an emphasis on class extremes and a society on the wrong track.
A satirical comedy, “Urinetown” pokes fun at capitalism, social irresponsibility, bureaucracy, corporate culture, liberalism and conservatism.
It debuted at the New York International Fringe Festival, was produced Off-Broadway and then moved to Broadway, opening at Henry Miller’s Theatre on Sept. 20, 2001. It ran there through Jan. 18, 2004.
The musical won three Tony Awards in 2002: best director, John Rando; best original score, Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis; and best book of a musical, also Kotis.
Ben Smolder, Miami associate professor of music, is musical director, and Hamilton native Ashley Goos is choreographing.
Photo by Miami University IT Services: Steven Mullan plays Bobby Strong and Maggie Taylor plays Hope Cladwell in the Miami University department of theatre production of “Urinetown.” Mullan is a senior musical performance major from Maumee; Taylor is a junior theatre major from the Columbus area.
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TweetBlues Merchants venture into Ryan’s Tavern
The Blues Merchants, 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 4, Ryan’s Tavern, 241 High St., Hamilton, (513) 737-2200.
The blues is the basis of the Blues Merchant’s sound, obviously, but the influences of its members run deeper than that, according to lead guitarist and founder Chris Kepes.
“We all come from different influences,” he said. “I grew up listening to Clapton, Hendrix, and all the ’70s stuff like that. I’m a huge Duane Allman fan — I wore out the ‘Live at the Fillmore’ album.”
But from there, as his guitar studies got more serious, he delved into the Delta blues and the musicians that inspired his heroes.
“I’ve always loved the guitar players that were able to portray emotions a lot more than other instruments you heard,” he said.
Other members of the band bring more of a jazz influence. Keyboard player Bob Nave has been a jazz radio host on WNOP and WVXU for the past 25 years in addition to being a founding member of the legendary Oxford band the Lemon Pipers, which had a national hit with “Green Tambourine.”
“So we don’t just stand up there playing I-IV-Vs all night,” he said. “We rock out on some stuff, too, so it’s a really good mix of material.”
One thing that helps the band stand out from the blues pack, Kepes said, is Nave’s work on the Hammond B-3.
“It’s a great sound and a big part of our sound,” he said. “A lot of bands keep the B-3 down underneath everything else in the mix, but we let it drive more.
“You don’t hear it played with as much variety as Bob puts into it, and there’s nothing better than being on stage and having those big Leslies going,” he said of the speakers that give the organ its distinctive vibrato.
The band also includes drummer Dave Koenig, who has also played with symphonies and big bands, and bassist King Phillip, who has played with many of Cincinnati’s seminal bluesmen, including Joe Duskin, Pigmeat Jarret, Albert Washington and Alice Hoskins.
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TweetOxford’s Second Fridays features performance by Sirenz
The call of Sirenz will lead people to the Oxford Community Arts Center for this month’s Second Friday, April 10.
Sirenz — Vicky Agee, Rene’ Mckinstry and Deb Richardson — have made music individually for many years in many ways, and have collaborated on their own special blend of three-part harmony for about five years, performing both classics ( Crosby, Stills & Nash, Linda Ronstadt Trio, Joni Mitchell, John Lennon, Bob Dylan) and contemporary (Wailin’ Jennys). They take the stage at 8 p.m.
Second Friday begins at 6 p.m., however, with Open Studios, hosted by OCAC’s resident artists on the third floor of the Arts Center. Guests can view the creative spaces of the artists as well as purchase one-of-a-kind pieces of artwork. The artists come from a variety of backgrounds, and display an assortment of styles such as jewelry making, acrylic and oil painting, watercolor and drawing.
It’s also opening night for the featured exhibit in the OCAC Gallery, “Opening Minds Through Art,” an exhibition of work from a program launched lasat year by Elizabeth Lokon, is designed to empower persons with dementia by inviting them to express themselves creatively.
“Creative self-expression not only builds the artists’ sense of self-worth, but also allows the artists to connect with others around them in a meaningful way,” Lokon said in a press release.
Besides celebrating the artists and their creations, the exhibition is also aimed at educating the general public on the creative capacities of people with dementia.
Also at Second Friday: Nancy Sturgeon and Janet Holmes offer a gentle introduction or a more comprehensive approach to the joys of ballroom dance, featuring open dancing from 8 to 10 p.m. Cost is $5 per person, and all proceeds go to the Oxford Community Arts Center. No sign up is required.
PHOTO: Sirenz perform at a recent Music Cafe in Hamilton
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