• Article

    Philly residents prepare for battle in Shakespeare in the park

    Published July 30, 2014 by

    Shakespeare's Henry IV in West Philadelphia's Clark Park. Credit: Brian Siano on YouTube. When a staging of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” opens tonight in Philadelphia, city native Brian Anthony Wilson, a black actor perhaps best known for being Detective Vernon Holley in the award-winning “The Wire” television series, will take the stage as king. “I’m here because I am an actor,” Wilson said. “And I’m selfishly doing this. Playing a king is a challenge but the bigger thing, the key thing, is that I’m showing kids of color and people of color more of what we can do and see.” That’s an important message for West Philadelphia, the neighborhood where the adaptation kicks off a four-night run in Clark Park, a block off the 43rd Street trolley stop on Baltimore Avenue. Three-quarters of the neighborhood’s residents are black—a demographic not usually counted among Shakespeare fans—and some of them will help stage a battle scene in the production.
  • Article

    One Voice OUT in Schools!

    Published July 30, 2014 by

    By Jane Ramseyer Miller, One Voice Mixed Chorus One of the most important impacts of One Voice’s Out In Our Schools program this year was giving youth a chance to interact, rehearse, sing and perform with LGBT and allied adults. Music is a powerful tool to dispel stereotypes and erase...
  • Article

    Dive into our precious coral at MIA

    Published July 29, 2014 by

    Installation of "Flower Animal" at MIA, North Terminal. As annoying air travel is these days, the MIA Galleries at Miami International have been doing a great job in alleviating the tension-filled experience. Throughout the various terminals and even at specific gates, the Division of Fine Arts...
  • Article

    Circ X launches Kickstarter for cabaret performances

    Published July 28, 2014 by

    Diana Lozano is founder and artistic director of Circ X, a traveling performance troupe and production company based in Miami, and a 2013 Knight Arts Challenge winner. We recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for our upcoming cabaret show at the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater. We hope to raise $3,000 this month to help match the Knights Arts Challenge grant and to pay rehearsal and performance fees for the artists.  We’re offering general admission tickets in the same price range as a movie ticket, to entice a wider audience to the world of live performance. Through the Kickstarter campaign, backers are able to get tickets without service fees. Basically, for less than the price of two coffees and a muffin at your local corporate coffee shop, you can experience live theater while supporting Miami’s local performance artists. 
  • Article

    Pablo Cano creates magic out of debris South of Flagler

    Published July 28, 2014 by

    Behind a beautiful, Spanish-style home just a few blocks south of Flagler Street is the Cricket Theater. The Cricket is Pablo Cano's small performance space (think the size of a large bedroom) filled with props, backdrops and rows and rows of the famous and the infamous—Fred Astaire, Louis Armstrong, Princess...
  • Article

    St. Paul novelist Stephan Eirik Clark is the latest Hachette author to get the “Colbert bump”

    Published July 28, 2014 by

    As of last week, one St. Paul author’s fortunes are definitely looking up: on the Monday, July 21 episode of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” author-turned-phenom Edan Lepucki plugged Stephan Eirik Clark’s new book, “Sweetness #9”. It’s a nod that’s already given the Twin Cities novelist's pre-sales a coveted “Colbert bump”....
  • Article

    Closing out the 2014 Summer Dance series

    Published July 26, 2014 by

    By Dayna Martinez, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts To close out the Summer Dance series for this year, on Thursday, July 24th we welcomed back to the Summer Dance stage Jerry O’Hagan and His Orchestra, who played everyone’s ballroom dance favorites, including waltz, foxtrot, swing, tango and cha-cha. We...