Harmony Wheeler - Page 84

Laughter and tears, gossip and home-grown advice are as prevalent as hair rollers in Truvy's Beauty Salon, the setting of the heartwarming comedy-drama Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, playing at Bristol Riverside Theatre on March 20-April 8. Susan D. Atkinson directs an ensemble cast of BRT favorites including Jennie Eisenhower, Diane Findlay,Laura C. Giknis, Barbara McCulloh, Susan Moses, and Jo Twiss.

A literary masterpiece comes to life this spring when TheatreWorks of Silicon Valley presents OF MICE AND MEN. Crafted for the stage by Steinbeck himself, this portrait immortalizes the strength of friendship and the depth of the American dream. OF MICE AND MEN plays April 4-29, 2012 (press opening April 7) at TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets ($19-$69) and information the public may call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

Before the 2:30 p.m. matinee performance on Sunday, April 8, all children ages 12 and under are invited to participate in GODSPELL's first-ever Easter Egg Hunt inside the Circle in the Square Theatre.

Shreve & Co., the Bay Area's premier luxury retail jeweler, will display several historic pieces of Shreve craftsmanship, courtesy of the Petra and Greg Martin Collection, for limited time only. The Martins, proprietors of Martin Estate Winery, have generously lent several significant items from their personal collection for display at Shreve's San Francisco store. The display will only be available during the VIP reception this Wednesday, March 21st, from 6:30-8:30 PM, in honor of Shreve's 160th anniversary celebration.

The Broadway play Red comes to Berkeley Repertory Theatre in March, staged as a valedictory by Obie Award-winner Les Waters as he departs the Bay Area to take the reins at Actors Theatre of Louisville. John Logan, the Oscar-nominated author of Aviator and Gladiator, won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for this feverish 90-minute drama. Now Waters and two exceptional actors bring this powerful play to local audiences. Red begins previews on the intimate Thrust Stage on March 16, opens March 22, and runs through April 29.

The Merce Cunningham Trust today announced that former Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) members Susana Hayman-Chaffey, Rashaun Mitchell, Sandra Neels, and Susan Quinn are the first recipients of the Cunningham Fellowship, a new program to support the teaching, revival, and performance of Cunningham works. Supervised by former MCDC Director of Choreography and Merce Cunningham Trustee Robert Swinston, each Fellow will conduct a multi-week repertory workshop to restage a Cunningham dance for pre-professional students. The Trust has also announced that it has named dance writer and Mondays with Merce producer Nancy Dalva Scholar-in-Residence, to help facilitate the ongoing study of Merce Cunningham and his work.

Jason Robert Brown's Off-Broadway show The Last Five Years takes the stage at Crossroads Theatre Company, April 12-29. The Last Five Years is a contemporary musical about the five-year relationship between two young New Yorkers: Jamie Wellerstein, a Jewish novelist whose career is rising at lightning speed, and Cathy Hiatt, an actress with integrity struggling to make it in a cut-throat business. The couple earnestly navigates the tumultuous waters of love, while their career successes and hardships tear them apart. Crossroads' production casts Cathy as an African-American, adding an interracial dimension to the show.

Singer, songwriter and activist Gavin Creel's newest solo album, Get Out, is now available on iTunes and Amazon.com. Last night, Creel previewed songs from the album at two sold-out concerts at Joe's Pub, streamed on LiveStream for fans across the country (http://new.livestream.com/joespub/gavincreel).

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announces the publication of Mojo and Other Plays, a new collection of plays by the author of the Tony Award-nominated Jerusalem. One of Britain's compelling and original playwrights, Butterworth follows up the publication of that critically acclaimed play with this collection of six early works. The volume includes the Olivier Award-winning Mojo, as well as an interview between the playwright and Nick Hern, founder of Nick Hern Books.

The San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas will be making their presence known in New York City this month with four concerts March 27-30 at Carnegie Hall as part of the American Mavericks celebration, a co-presentation by the Symphony and Carnegie Hall. While they are in New York, WNET's THIRTEEN will screen two PBS Great Performances programs on March 29 & 30 of concert events led by Michael Tilson Thomas: The Thomashefskys: Music & Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, and San Francisco Symphony at 100, including the Symphony's Centennial Season gala concert featuring Itzhak Perlman and Lang Lang.

The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis presented the U.S. Premiere performance of Ballet Preljocaj's Blanche Neige (Snow White) on March 17. See the ballet's full schedule below. Check out the production photos of the ballet below!

The Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis presented the U.S. Premiere performance of Ballet Preljocaj's Blanche Neige (Snow White) on March 17. See the ballet's full schedule below. Watch the video with excerpts of the ballet below!

Hundreds of lunchtime diners in downtown Chicago were treated to a surprise performance 12:30-1 p.m. today by soprano Renée Fleming, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a Lyric Opera of Chicago pianist, and 100 high-school chorus members from Lake View High School, Chicago High School for the Arts, and Merit School of Music.

The Grove Theatre in Historic downtown Upland presents an evening of adult humor with comedian Judy Tenuta for One Night Only on Saturday, April 21st. Judy has strong stage, television, comedy and film credits, having appeared in “The Vagina Monologues' and in 'Menopause the Musical' both in LA and Chicago, and has had her own stand-up specials on Showtime, HBO and Lifetime. Judy was the first female stand-up comic to win 'Best Female Comedian' at the American Comedy Awards and is a two-time Grammy nominee for her comedy CD'S. That same year, she became the national spokesperson for a series of Diet Dr. Pepper commercials. The self-described 'Love Goddess' and 'Aphrodite of the Accordion' has made hundreds of guest and co-hosting appearances on such popular TV shows as 'The View', 'Late Night with David Letterman', 'Larry King Live', 'Entertainment Tonight', and 'Comics Unleashed'.

Fred Weintraub, an 85-year-old Bronx native, who has spent more than 50 years in the entertainment business, is coming to NYC March 29 - April 5, to promote his new memoir, 'Bruce Lee, Woodstock and Me.' The founder of the Greenwich Village nightclub The Bitter End (which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year), began his adventurous life in the Fort Apache section of The Bronx, after which it took him to Greenwich Village and the founding of the world famous Bitter End, where he launched the careers of such famous entertainers as Woody Allen, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, Joan Rivers, Billy Crystal, Bill Cosby, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul and Mary, Dustin Hoffman, Carly Simon, David Amram, and Neil Diamond, among others, and then out West to Hollywood where he discovered Bruce Lee and produced 'Enter The Dragon,' and then produced the original Woodstock movie and 40 more films with stars such as Steve McQueen, George C. Scott, Robert Duvall. Karen Dunst and dozens of others.

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts will distribute 1000 disposable cameras, inviting the Nashville public to photograph aspects of their community that move them. Once the cameras are returned, the film will be developed and the resulting photos juried to be included in an exhibition entitled Cameras and Community in Action. On display in the Frist Center's Upper-Level Education Corridor, the exhibition will run concurrently with Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video, on view in the Ingram Gallery from September 21, 2012 through January 13, 2013.

In support of their Yep Roc Records release, Acrobats, the London/Brighton-based trio Peggy Sue will play a run of U.S. dates with First Aid Kit kicking off on March 28 at Webster Hall in New York, NY.

The Abu Dhabi Festival, one of the United Arab Emirates' premier arts events, has opened its ninth edition, bringing to the Gulf its largest and most ambitious programme to date, featuring celebrated international artists in new commissions and Arab World Premieres.

The Lark Play Development Center announced that it will launch the Jerome New York Fellowship in September 2012 as part of its long-term plan to implement a portfolio of funded programs that create economic independence for playwrights.

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company will close its 17th season with an area premiere of the comedy The Last Word, April 14 - May 6, 2012. Henry Grunwald is an 80-year old Viennese Jew who fled the Nazis and became a successful New York advertising executive. Now retired and nearly blind, he's determined to fulfill his dream of being a playwright. Len Artz is a student and aspiring playwright who has come to Henry's office to interview for a job as his assistant. This new comedy reveals the challenging world of playwriting as it explores the colliding forces of classicism and modernism and a struggle with fear of failure and the pursuit of dreams.