ArtFarm presents A Midsummer Night's Dream

Photo credit: Lauren Sitz

In celebration of ten years of Shakespeare in the Grove, the Middletown-based theater company ARTFARM will be presenting a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Performances of this popular comedy will be held July 15-19 and 22-26 in the Grove at Middlesex Community College in Middletown, with live music preceding each performance. Bring lawn chairs, blankets and a picnic and enjoy professional music and theater in the beautiful Cedar Grove overlooking the Connecticut River Valley.

Director Dic Wheeler, who is also a seasoned circus director and performer, will be incorporating the magic and artistry of circus in the Shakespearean comedy. The production will feature clowns, aerialist fairies, jugglers and stilters, in addition to the core of seasoned Shakespearean actors, promising a performance that is entertaining and fun for all ages.

This year’s production will also kick off ARTFARM’s Shakespeare400 Passport program, in honor of the upcoming 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Audience members attending the performances will receive a special “Passport” which highlights Shakespeare-related events throughout Connecticut from July 2015 through May 2016. Those who attend 10 or more passport events will be entered into a drawing for big prizes in May 2016.

Each evening’s Shakespeare performance will be preceded by live music featuring some of Connecticut’s best musical acts. Preshow Musical Headliners are sponsored by the Middletown Commission on the Arts. The schedule for 6pm Musical Headliners is as follows:

Wednesday 7/15 Nzinga’s DaughtersThursday 7/16 Phil RosenthalFriday 7/17 Rani ArboSaturday 7/18 Kritza MoonSunday 7/19 Andrew Biagiarelli 
Wednesday 7/22 Stacy Phillips and Paul HowardThursday 7/23 Banning EyreFriday 7/24 Mixashawn RozieSaturday 7/25 Noah BaermanSunday 7/26 Kate Callahan

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for kids. July 15 & 22 are “Pay-What-You-Can” performances. The performance on Saturday, July 25 will be followed by a “Talkback” with the director and cast, moderated by Middlesex Community College President Anna Wasescha.

Middlesex Community College is located at 100 Training Hill Road, Middletown, CT. 
Shakespeare in the Grove 2015 is made possible by generous grants from the Department of Economic and Community Development/Office of the Arts, the Middletown Commission on the Arts, and Pratt & Whitney. Shakespeare in the Grove is co-sponsored by the Humanities and Arts Division of Middlesex Community College.
For tickets and information, contact ARTFARM at (860) 346-4390, email info@art-farm.orginfo@art-farm.org, or go to www.art-farm.org.

The Pool of Memory

A new painting "The Pool of Memory" from the "Streams" series by Joan Levy Hepburn will be the backdrop and subject of a collaboration with CT Ballet and musical composers and guitarists Joe Bouchard and Kevin O'Neil. The original painting is 42 x 180 inches and made of charcoal, gold leaf and oil paint on layered vellum.  The dancers' costumes, which were also painted by Joan refer to the cave paintings in the foundational layer of the Stream series, and seem to release the drawings from their wall and bring them to life in the spacial world by the dancers. 

Dionysian myths are the basis of the narrative content of the painting.  When Dionysus went to Hades he found gold leaves with instructions to drink from the Pool of Memory, so that he could remember his past life and be reincarnated out of Hades.  The Pool of Memory was made by Mnemosyne, whose name means memory.  She was a Titan Goddess who procreated with Zeus to produce The Muses.  So this is also a metaphor for going into the deep unknown in consciousness and finding the Muse and giving birth to a new creation.  

The metallic gold leaf shapes pasted to the foundational layer of the artwork also refer to the Dionysian myth of King Midas.  When the king found Dionysus' mentor in a drunken state he took him home to sober him up and returned him to Dionysus.  To thank King Midas for his good deed he offered to grant him any wish. King Midas asked for everything he touched to be turned to gold.  After touching his wife, children and food he realized that he had made a grave mistake and asked Dionysus to undo the curse.  Dionysus told him to go to the river and wash his hands in the water and the river would take on his wish.  From then on the stream bed contained "fools gold" which was made into currency.

In the Spring when the cold water rushes through the stream it scrubs the stream bed clean and it sparkles like gold in the sunlight reflecting off amber stones.  The color and light is aesthetically beautiful.  It seems to me that the reality of the beauty in the actual landscape combined with the Dionysus myth suggests that mankind should preserve the planet by not over mining its natural resources. Through creative engineering it could be possible to preserve the planet for future generations.

CT BALLET SHOWCASE DATES: all free!
Tuesday, July 14th - 7:00pm Levitt Pavillion for the Performing Arts, 40 Jesup Road, Westport

Saturday, July 18th - 7:30pm Riverfront Recapture,
Mortensen Riverfront Plaza, Hartford

Saturday, July 25th - 6:30pm Elizabeth Park Conservancy
1561 Asylum Ave., West Hartford

Saturday, August 1st - 7:30pm Middlesex Community College
in the grove behind Wheaton Hall
100 Training Hill Rd., Middletown

Broadway in Branford & Cruise and Croon

 

Artist Rendering by Vladimir Shpitalnik

Broadway in Branford: Wicked’s Eden Espinosa & Friends
In collaboration with Seaview Productions & Owenego Inn and Beach Club 
Thursday July 16, 6:30 pm
Owenego Inn & Beach Club, 48 Linden Avenue Branford CT 06405
Free Will Donation
 
Following the smash success of last year’s Witness Uganda: In Concert. In Branford., Legacy Theatre partners again with Broadway producers Seaview Productions and Owenego Beach Club to present the second annual outdoor pay-what-you-can evening of the best Broadway talent live in Branford. Returning to the Branford stage, Witness Uganda creator Matt Gould will host Broadway star Eden Espinosa (Elphaba in Wicked, Maureen in Rent, star of Brooklyn on Broadway), backed up by a cast of Broadway stars in this not to be missed evening under the stars. 

Reservations for Broadway in Branford.

Sea Mist Cruise and Croon 
July 24, 6:30 – 8:30  
Stony Creek Dock
$45
 
All aboard Stony Creek’s famous Sea Mist Thimble Island Cruise for a sunset cruise through the storied Thimble Islands. Onboard entertainment and hors d'oeuvres will be served. Reserve a seat.

The Legacy Theatre is a professional theatre company that enhances the Connecticut Shoreline's economy, educational opportunities and quality of life through live theatre and related programs. The Legacy strives to be a premiere Arts house for local artists, professional companies, and to ensure ongoing seasons of uplifting, inspiring, and challenging professional theatre and theatre training for all.

Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts Welcomes T. Allen Lawson to Chauncey Stillman Gallery

The Forecaster

With an eye for subtle beauty and a dedication to continual study, T. Allen Lawson works and paints in the tradition of earlier representational artists. His paintings, drawings and etchings are consistently evolving expressions of the artist and his surroundings. These paintings reflect a discipline he developed of patiently observing his world, studying the often unnoticed rhythms and subtleties of landscapes and in his surroundings, especially on his farm in Maine.

Tim formally studied portraiture and figure drawing at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

His work is part of the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, Portland Museum of Art, Whitney Western Art Museum of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Florence Griswold Museum and the Farnsworth Art Museum.  In 2008, T. Allen Lawson was chosen to create the White House Christmas card.  That painting is now a permanent part of the White House art collection and the Smithsonian Institution.

The opening reception is Thursday, July 9. The works will be on view through August 7. Gallery hours are Monday - Saturday, 10am - 4pm.  The artist will present a lecture on Thursday, August 6. Reservations are required for the lecture. Please RSVP to 860-434-3571 X-124.

Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts is a college of the University of New Haven. Its mission is to educate aspiring artists through a rigorous studio curriculum rooted in figurative and representational art. The college offers a comprehensive liberal arts education essential for advanced critical and creative thought. For more information, visit www.lymeacademy.edu.

What's in a Key?

This summer, Chestnut Hill Concerts will present four programs of chamber music arranged in a rather unusual way. Artistic director and cellist Ronald Thomas has organized each concert around a single key as the starting point for answering the question, “What’s in a Key?”

Classical composers knew that the key of a piece of music affects its mood and spirit, and even its “color.” Each concert this season -- along with performances of masterworks played by world-class artists--will feature Mr. Thomas’s commentary on the characteristics of various keys to guide the audience in the exploration this fascinating aspect of classical music. The concerts will take place on consecutive Friday evenings, August 7, 14, 21, and 28 at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook.

The first program, on August 7, features works in D, and includes Beethoven’s Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola in D major; Prokofiev’s Flute Sonata in D major; and Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor. On August 14, the works are all in E-flat major: Two pieces by Beethoven, his Clarinet Trio Op. 38 and Piano Trio Op. 70 no. 2, and Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata No. 2. The third program on August 21 is in A minor, featuring the Ravel Piano Trio, Schubert’s Arpeggione sonata for viola, and Elgar’s Piano Quintet. The season concludes on August 28 in C, with Bach’s Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, and Fauré’s Piano Quartet in C minor.

The 2015 season will bring to The Kate’s stage thirteen of today’s most distinguished musicians. Making their Chestnut Hill Concerts debuts are flutist Catherine Gregory, violinist Catherine Cho, and violinist/violist Tien Hsin Cindy Wu. Returning artists, in addition to cellist and artistic director Ronald Thomas, are clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois; violinists Steven Copes, Jesse Mills, and Todd Phillips; violists Mark Holloway and Cynthia Phelps; and pianists Rieko Aizawa, Randall Hodgkinson, and Mihae Lee.

Sponsors of the 2015 concerts are Guilford Savings Bank, Northstar Wealth Partners, and Bruce and Kathy Kramer Briggs.

The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center (The Kate) is located at 300 Main Street in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. Subscriptions to the four concerts are $120 (orchestra) and $100 (balcony). Single tickets are $35 for orchestra seats and $30 for the balcony. To purchase tickets, visit chestnuthillconcerts.org or call 203-245-5736. After July 2, contact the Kate box office at 860-510-0453, or visit www.thekate.org.