Don Smith News

The Screen Actors Guild Regional Branch Division (RBD) Board of Directors voted to endorse the creation of one union to cover all performers.

Since 2007, many of Erik Spehn's paintings have involved applying strips of masking tape to the surface of his canvases; then painting over them, peeling them off, and taping and repainting again and again. Over time, Spehn recognized that the discarded tape might offer a new avenue of formal investigation, so he began to make works on paper by applying the used tape to matboard. Each piece echoed the specific paintings on which he was working, but visually these 'drawings' became a distinct and separate body of work.

Raffe has photographed Circus Flora for more than a decade and this body of work is unified by theme and sensitivity, revealing the photographer's passion and intense interest in the circus, matched only by his mastery of the craft. Raffe's intent was to 'document the circus as an important part of our shared cultural heritage and to capture and preserve the humanity and the artistry of these extraordinary people through portraits and images of the 'decisive moment' during performances.'

Since 1999, Jay Wolke has been photographing in the south of Italy . During these visits, Wolke has captured the complexity of a landscape called the Mezzogiorno. What he found in this storied landscape is an elaborate set of physical, social and political structures, manifesting in an extraordinary folding together of visual information. On one level, the images he has created are referential and documentary-but on another level, they are about what cannot be explicitly seen, what is hidden and implied. Wolke's color photographs convey purposeful neutrality; constructions of selected non-fictions resonating between historical and contemporary meaning. The larger narratives of the marks made, marks abandoned, and marks erased, represent numerous conquerors and occupiers, from the Greeks to the Spanish to the Camorra.

The exhibition features paintings by St. Louis artist Wallace Herndon Smith. Born in St. Louis in 1901, Wallace Smith was a traditional painter who absorbed the visual language of artists like Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, and Edward Hopper. Smith was fluent in many subjects including still-lifes, landscapes, interiors, and portraits. The artist's strength was in capturing psychological nuances, and the exhibit has been selected to illuminate this area of his work.

The Sheldon Art Galleries announces the Summer 2010 opening of four new exhibits. Join us for an opening reception on Friday, June 4 from 5-7 p.m.! Gallery hours are Tuesdays, Noon - 8 p.m.; Wednesdays - Fridays, Noon - 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and one hour prior to Sheldon performances and during intermission. Admission is free.

The Sunshine Brooks Theatre announced its new season lineup.

A private reading of the new play SWORDPLAY by Ben Bettenbender will be presented October 2 at Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, CA.

Thursday night was a veritable WHO's WHO of theatre history as Donna McKechnie and her publishers hosted a book party at the National Arts Club, celebrating the release of TIME STEPS - My Musical Comedy Life.

CONTEST CLOSED! In the wonderfully revealing new play THE PROPERTY KNOWN AS GARLAND starring Tony Award-nominee ADRIENNE BARBEAU (the original Rizzo in Broadway's Grease; Carol in TV's classic sit-com 'Maude'; Ruthie in HBO's 'Carnivale') you're invited backstage to the legendary Judy Garland's dressing room as she prepares for what will be her final concert appearance in Copenhagen, 1969.

CONTEST CLOSED! Win tickets to see 'JOY' starring Ben Curtis