Archive: Arts & Entertainment

The State Theatre of Ithaca, CFCU Community Credit Union and the Gateway Commons Community Series Presents: Wild Kingdoms' Peter Gros: Wildlife Expert: LIVE! on Sunday, November 5 at 3pm.

In his popular live presentations, Peter Gros shares his exciting animal world, travel experiences and timeless tales. He highlights his many adventures with a mix of video clips and bloopers while introducing friendly exotic animals to audience members, and telling inspirational stories dealing with issues of conservation, travel, and wildlife filming. Peter’s fascinating stories have been thrilling and educating audiences across the country for years.

Bad Jews, Joshua Harmon’s fun-filled dark comedy about family, faith, and love, runs November 2-4 at Cornell’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts.

The internationally-lauded play centers on a fight between three cousins over who is the most deserving of their deceased grandfather’s Chai necklace.

Director Julia Dunetz ‘19 chose the piece because of its warm reception from college audiences across the country. Dunetz feels the “youthful, contemporary” show is a perfect fit with Cornell’s audience and has special resonance for her as a Jewish woman.

The State Theatre of Ithaca and ABRAMORAMA Films Presents: Pearl Jam: Let’s Play Two; A film by Danny Clinch on Thursday, October 26th at 7pm.

Let’s Play Two is a concert film that chronicles Pearl Jam’s legendary performances at Wrigley Field during the Chicago Cubs historic 2016 season. With Chicago being a hometown to Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam has forged a relationship with the city, the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field that is unparalleled in the world of sports and music.

In a tour-de-force performance, writer-actor Aaron Davidman conjures a host of different characters while seeking answers to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in "Wrestling Jerusalem," a film adaptation of his one-man show. The film screens Oct. 24 at 7 pm at Cinemapolis in Ithaca and will be followed by a panel discussion with political scientist Miram Elman and Women Wage Peace organizer Inbal Shlosberg.

In the film, Davidman takes a multidimensional journey into the heart of the Middle East and the intersection of politics, identity and spiritual yearning. He embodies and gives voice to 17 different characters on all sides of the existential divide–deftly moving between male and female, Jewish and Muslim, Israeli and Arab–modeling what it takes truly to bear witness through the eyes of the other. Challenging long-held beliefs with sharp and unblinking observation, Davidman finds both entrenched isolation and shared humanity in the shifting moral compasses and competing narratives of all his characters.

Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 2017-2018 Season with Brahman/i: A One-Hijra Stand-Up Comedy Show by Aditi Brennan Kapil, a play The Hollywood Reporter called "a layered, insightful consideration of Indian-American cultural identity, gender and colonialism that happens to take the form of a stand-up comedy routine." Kitchen Theatre Company's new Producing Artistic Director, M. Bevin O'Gara, directs. Performances of Brahman/i begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in The Percy Browning Theatre on October 8.

Meet B, an intersex stand-up comedian from Athens, Georgia whose act explores everything from his/her/their Indian heritage to history, mythology, gender roles, and horrifying middle and high school experiences, assisted by J, electric bass playing sidekick. The play answers questions and raises more about the complexities of gender identity and why we see it the way we do, and it does it in the context of a laugh out loud funny play.

This fall, Civic Ensemble and Cornell University's Department of Performing and Media Arts continue their partnership with a new version of PMA's Theatre and Social Change course. The course, originally developed and taught by Professor Sara Warner, has been reimagined, and with funding from Engaged Cornell, is now being co-taught by Professor Warner and Senior Lecturer, and Civic Ensemble Artistic Director, Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. Additional collaborators are Civic Ensemble Artistic Director Sarah K. Chalmers and Cornell Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Assistant Professor Toby Ault. The course teaches students how to use theatre to initiate dialogue and change around a vital issue of our times. This semester, that issue is climate change here in Tompkins County and the greater Finger Lakes area.

Are humans special creatures, uniquely endowed with reason? Or are we simply animals who can talk and build?

"What Makes Us Human," a new podcast and essay series from Cornell University's College of Arts & Sciences, will showcase the newest thinking from across the disciplines about what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. Featuring 3-4 minute audio essays written and recorded by Cornell faculty, the series will release a new episode each Tuesday through the fall.

Tompkins County Public Library, in partnership with Ithaca Made Movies, will present 'Wharton Studio Serial Episodes,' Saturday, October 7 at 2 p.m. in the BorgWarner Community Room-East.

Being held in celebration of Silent Movie Month, this free event will be facilitated by Ithaca Made Movies Founder Terry Harbin and include locally-filmed scenes from Wharton Studios' popular 'Beatrice Fairfax' series. Recently discovered footage and a local documentary, 'The Fireman and the Girl: Part Two,' which was produced during Ithaca's 1988 Centennial Celebration, will also be shown.

Fitz&Startz Productions, in collaboration with Opera Ithaca, is bringing a music- and laugh-filled production to Kitchen Theatre Company, 417 West MLK/State Street, in October. The Mystery of the Magic Flute by Rachel Lampert, with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, plays for four performances only: Saturday, October 21 and Saturday, October 28 at 1pm and 3pm.

Three American girls-Bettina age 15, Anna age 12, and Suz age 9-are off to Salzburg, Austria with their Uncle Wolfie to see the sights and experience going to the opera in Mozart's home town. Uncle Wolfie has told his nieces about a mysterious opera house that is on a street with no name and is not on any map. Can they find it? When Uncle Wolfie turns a corner and disappears and a mysterious door appears, the girls decide to enter. They find a company of opera singers who have been stuck in time for 125 years! Can Bets, Anna and Suz get them out of their time warp? And, how many times must they perform The Magic Flute before the spell is broken? For lovers of music, mysteries and merriment, The Mystery of the Magic Flute is a delight.

The Museum of the Earth announced the opening of 'Mapping the Planets in Silk & Sound', a multimedia exhibition offering a unique perspective of our universe. Beautiful large-scale silk batiks by artist Mary Edna Fraser are combined with music composed by Mark Mercury and commentary by planetary scientist Ted Maxwell. This exhibit will be on display from September 22 through April 30, 2018, in the Museum's BorgWarner Gallery.

The Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers (DCJS) will present 'An Afternoon of Negro Spirituals and African-American Sacred Music,' Sunday, Oct. 15 at 3 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 315 N. Cayuga St., Ithaca. The concert will include favorites from DCJS's recent Mother's Day (May 14) performance at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and a wide selection of new material.

The chorus also will perform Tuesday, Oct. 17 at around 7:30 p.m. at the United Presbyterian Church, 42 Chenango St., Binghamton at the 2017 Faith for a Fair New York Conference and Poor People's Campaign Mass Meeting, held Oct. 17-18 in Binghamton. The conference will bring together faith, labor and community leaders from across New York with leaders of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, including the Rev. Dr. William Barber. The Oct. 17 program, 7-9 p.m., is free and open to the public.

The State Theatre of Ithaca, Tompkins Trust Company and CSP Management kick off the 2017/2018 Family Series with "My Father's Dragon" Live on The State Theatre Stage Sunday, October 8th at 3pm.

Based on the beloved book series by Trumansburg resident Ruth Stiles Gannett, Enchantment Theatre Company is delighted to bring these enchanting books to life on the State Theatre Stage. Using puppets, masks, inventive scenic effects and original music, your whole family will enjoy a story of a compassionate and courageous young boy and his unlikely friendship with a splendid yellow and blue striped dragon.