Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The Kitchen Theatre Company’s 21st season opens with the regional premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker. Previews are on August 24, 25, and 26, Opening Night is August 27, and performances continue through September 11, 2011.

With Circle Mirror Transformation, the Kitchen brings rising star Annie Baker’s first major play to Ithaca. It is a funny, moving, and emotionally true comedy about the awkward but occasionally life changing experiences that can occur when people are forced to get to know one another in an intimate situation.  Set in small town Vermont, Circle Mirror Transformation brings together five would-be actors in a “creative drama” class at a community center.

SMART TALK

by Dr. Viva Palaver


RESTROOM: Every shopping mall should have real restrooms: carpeted lounges with soft seats and no noise. Instead, they have toilets in echoing chambers far down some uninviting hallway.

Euphemisms can be hilarious as well as embarrassingly revelatory of their users' inhibitions. As the staff psychologist, I'm professionally interested. A hundred years ago, an interesting condition meant pregnant. To get that way, we often pretend the couple slept together. Who knew sleeping could be so productive? We may laugh at such prudishness yet feel uncomfortable with saying toilet or even seeing it in print. But do you really rush to a restroom for a rest? Do you go the bathroom to take a bath? Only sometimes. But if it's a bathroom, it had better have at least a shower in it.

About once a year, I attend a language conference in Europe for the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired. What a relief it is - literally - to see a sign saying toilet, or a word much like that, in a strange city at a critical moment. Often, the sign hangs right over the street, with an arrow. Now that's what I call civilization.

These remarks remind me of incontinent ordnance, which is a military euphamism for shelling our own troops by mistake.


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Following the great success of last season’s production The Piano Lesson, the Hangar Theatre will present another play from Pulitzer-Prize winner August Wilson’s Twentieth Century Cycle, Gem of the Ocean.   The New York Times said "'Gem' has passages of transporting beauty. Mr. Wilson is at the top of his form."   Performances at the Hangar begin July 28th, running through August 6th .

One of Wilson’s last works, Gem of the Ocean is set in Pittsburgh in 1904.  Citizen Barlow is in desperate need of spiritual guidance when another man is wrongfully accused of his crimes so Barlow turns to 285-year-old Aunt Ester Tyler and her suitor Solly Two Kings, a conductor on the Underground Railroad.    Set in the same Pittsburgh neighborhood as The Piano Lesson (The Hill district), Hangar audiences will marvel at August Wilson's unmatched story-telling prowess in this gem of a play.

SMART TALK

by Dr. Saber S. Poder



BE SURE AND:  Some time back, I ran some trenchant remarks about how otherwise intelligent people often say try and instead of try to.  They even claim to feel badly about some things.  In trying to sound sophisticated, they use bad grammar and sound uneducated.    

These are the same earnest folks who admonish each other to be sure and set the alarm or whatever.  Of course,they mean be sure to do it, but the illogic of their language never enters their well-styled heads.

At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we nickname patients who abuse the language this way BWBs, for British Wannabes.  They also often say EYE-there instead of EE-there, and sometimes DEPP-o instead of DEE-po.  Not wrong like be sure and, try and, or feel badly, but pretentious and not American.

Like most Brits, they also don't know the difference between that and which, but I'll leave that one to a colleague.

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Move over, American Idol: Ithaca will soon host a music competition every bit as hard-fought, but the dueling contestants will use fortepianos instead of voices. On July 31- August 6, 2011, thirty highly talented musicians from all over the world will come to Ithaca for the first-ever International Fortepiano Competition in America, hosted by the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies and held at Cornell University. All competition events July 31-August 4, and Saturday, August 6, are free and open to the public.

The Westfield Center anticipates that over 300 people will attend the final round, prize ceremony and reception. In addition to monetary prizes totaling $13,500; the first-prize winner will have engagements in several important concert series and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic. A fortepiano academy with Bart van Oort and David Breitman, running August 7-13, will follow the competition.

The Hangar Theatre’s 2011 Kiddstuff season continues with Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, onstage July 21-23.

Doreen Cronin’s Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, tells the witty story of a group of spirited cows and their mission to communicate with their owner, Farmer Brown. When the cows discover an old typewriter, they decide to type notes to Farmer Brown, making requests like, “The barn is very cold at night. We'd like some electric blankets. Sincerely, The Cows.”

The Lansing Community Library and the Ulysses Philomathic Library in Trumansburg are preparing to celebrate the end of the summer reading program and honor the children who participated. Each library will host a fun-filled party featuring a concert by children’s recording artist Rachel Sumner.

Sumner’s recordings have garnered numerous national awards for their educational merit and artistic quality. Her music videos have appeared on The Learning Channel and her recordings have been featured on children's radio programming around the world.

Toni Murdough, President of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra Board of Directors, announced that Lanfranco Marcelletti signed a new three year contract with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra (CCO).  Marcelletti was the winning candidate in 2008, after a year long and highly competitive international conductor search. He stood at the CCO podium for the first time in the fall of 2008.

For the past three years, Marcelletti has worked successfully with the Board and with the administrative staff to achieve a larger community presence, increase season tickets, provide creative programming and major collaborations with other arts organizations, and to maintain the high quality musical integrity that the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra is known for.

SMART TALK

by Dr. Saber S. Poder



BE SURE AND:  Some time back, I ran some trenchant remarks about how otherwise intelligent people often say try and instead of try to.  They even claim to feel badly about some things.  In trying to sound sophisticated, they use bad grammar and sound uneducated.    

These are the same earnest folks who admonish each other to be sure and set the alarm or whatever.  Of course,they mean be sure to do it, but the illogic of their language never enters their well-styled heads.

At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, we nickname patients who abuse the language this way BWBs, for British Wannabes.  They also often say EYE-there instead of EE-there, and sometimes DEPP-o instead of DEE-po.  Not wrong like be sure and, try and, or feel badly, but pretentious and not American.

Like most Brits, they also don't know the difference between that and which, but I'll leave that one to a colleague.

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The surprising and hilarious search for a place to call home is at the heart of Ever So Humble, a new comedy by Tim Pinckney (Message to Michael) receiving its world premiere at the Hangar Theatre under the direction of Artistic Director Peter Flynn.  The cast of seven features Andréa Burns (In the Heights), Philip Hoffman (Falsettos, Into the Woods) and Eric T. Miller (LAByrinth Theatre’s Sweet Storm). Poignant, smart, sassy, Ever So Humble is a touching reminder that our home and our family are what we make them.  Performances begin July 14th, running through July 23rd.