Roundup

September

• Sept. 11: Alley Repertory Theater presents Collective Soul, a launch party and preview night for their next season, at 8:00 at the Visual Arts Collective behind the Woman of Steel Gallery on Chinden. It includes excerpts from some of their upcoming productions, including Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, the musical Landlocked by local musicians Heather Bauer and Thomas Paul, and Skit/Skit, a short piece by cartoonist E.J. Pettinger.
• Sept. 11: Soprano Rochelle Bard and baritone Ken Mattice will give a recital of songs, arias and duets from operas and showtunes at 7:30 at the Egyptian Theatre on Capitol and Main.
  
• Sept. 11-13: The Boise Art Museum presents Art in the Park at Julia Davis Park from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. About 270 artists will have booths at the event.
• Sept. 11: Music Theatre of Idaho opens the Neil Simon's Sweet Charity, a musical about a girl who flits in and out of relationships. The show includes numbers such as "Big Spender." The show runs Sept. 11-12 and 17-19 at 7:30 and Sept. 12 at 1:30 at the Nampa Civic Center.
  
• Sept. 11: Encore Theatre Co., Etc., opens Gepetto & Son, a musical version of Pinocchio. The show runs Sept. 11-12 and 18-19 at 7:30 at the Holly Street Performance Hall, formerly the old science lecture hall, at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa
  
• Now through Sept. 12: Stage Coach Theatre presents Duck Hunter Shoots Angel, a comedy by Mitch Albom about a tabloid reporter tracking down the story of two Alabama duck hunters who believe they shot an angel. The show runs Sept. 3-6 and 10-12 at 7:30 Thursdays, 8:15 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sunday at the theater in the Hillcrest Shopping Center breezeway at Orchard and Overland.
• Now through Sept. 12: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The show runs Sept. 4-5 and 11-12 at 7:30 at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley.
• Sept. 17: The Langroise Trio and tenor Corey McKnight perform music by Idaho composer Jim Cockey at 7:30 at the College of Idaho in Caldwell. Other C of I faculty will also perform.
• Now through Sept. 19: Boise Little Theater presents You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, a musical based on Charles Schultz's comic strip, Peanuts. The show runs at 8:00 Sept. 11-12 and 18-19, 7:30 Sept. 10 and 17, and 2:00 Sept. 13 and 19.
• Now through Sept. 20: Boise Art Museum hosts an exhibit called Devorah Sperber: Threads of Perception. Sperber arranges spools of colored thread in such a way that, when viewed through an optical device, recreates a famous work of art.
• Sept. 25-26: The Boise Philharmonic and Boise Master Chorale perform a symphonic tone poem by Gustav Holst called The Planets at 8:00 at the Northwest Nazarene University Swayne Auditorium in Nampa on Friday and at 8:15 at the Boise State University Morrison Center Saturday.
• Sept. 25: Prairie Dog Productions presents Tales from the DorkSide Sept. 25-26 and Oct. 2-3, 9-11, 16-18, 23-25 and 30-31 at 7:15 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sundays at 3820 Cassia St.
  
• Sept. 29: Ballet Idaho presents an interactive introduction to ballet for children and adults in its Family Series version of Swan Lake, Idaho and Yes Virginia, Another Piano Ballet at 4:00 and 7:00. Kids get to learn the story behind the ballet, meet the characters, get a sneak peek behind the scenes of the ballet and learn a few easy dance moves.
• Sept. 29: Frank Deford, the author of The Entitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, will give a reading at 7:30 at the Egyptian Theatre at Capitol and Main. Deford is a six-time Sports Illustrated U.S. Sportswriter of the Year, a Hall-of-Famer for the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters, and a frequent contributor for NPR's Morning Edition and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
  
• Now through Oct. 3: The Idaho Shakespeare Festival presents A Tuna Christmas, a two-man comedy with 20 characters from small-town Tuna, Texas who are trying to salvage the Christmas pageant and win the yard decorating contest despite a mysterious saboteur. The show runs Sept. 9-13, 16-20, 23-27 and 30 and Oct. 1-3 at 7:30 Wednesday through Saturday and 7:00 Sunday at the theater on Warm Springs.
  
• Now through Oct. 11: Tying It Together, an exhibition of drawings by Garden Valley artist James Castle, is on exhibit at the Boise Art Museum along with a short documentary about Castle, who was born deaf, never learned to read and write, and prefers to make his drawings on discarded scraps of paper and cardboard.
• Now through Nov. 8: Boise Art Museum exhibits sculpture by Ann Weber called Corrugated. The pieces are made from cardboard, are woven into giant gourd-like spires, and are up to 16 feet tall.
• Now through Nov. 15: Boise Art Museum presents Kid Stuff, an exhibit of art geared toward children by artists Deborah Barrett, Alexander Calder, Michael Corney, Benjamin Jones, Marianne Kolb, Marilyn Lanfear, David Gillhooley, Marilyn Lysohir, Renda Palmer and others.
• Now through March 14: Boise Art Museum presents Patchwork, a collection of quilts from the early 1800s through the mid-20th century.
  

Curb Cup

I just wanted to highlight something that's going on this weekend, but didn't make it into the calendar. Curb Cup is an afternoon of performances by 130 groups from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30 along 8th Street in downtown Boise. The performers will range from bands and dancers to improv comedians and magicians to hula hoopers and jump ropers to muralists and dramatic troupes.

The Awesome '80s Prom

If you decide to go check out the Daisy's Madhouse production of Awesome '80s Prom, I recommend you dance.

Don't go to Awesome '80s Prom for the script. Half the time, there isn't one -- it's got a very loose storyline and is mostly improvised.

Don't go for the deep characterization. This is about high school in the '80s, and as groundbreaking as Breakfast Club was, most of the characters in Awesome '80s Prom stick to the other film-making conventions of the period -- they divide up pretty neatly into brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses and criminals.

Don't go for the plot. Sure, there's a few little plot devices, like the happy ending for the nerds (I'm not giving anything away there. You all would have seen it coming a million miles away). But there's not much more than that.

But do go to dance. Go to talk to the actors and see how they ad lib. Go to vote for prom king and queen and influence the show's outcome.

It's much more fun if you dance. In a way, I got to relive high school for a night. But I got to be someone else. In high school, I didn't dance with the bad boys. I didn't sneak a drink from anyone's flask at prom. I didn't get invited to Dungeons and Dragons night. The cheerleaders certainly never screamed with delight when they saw me coming. That all happened at Awesome '80s Prom, and it happened because I danced.

The cast -- Leta Neustaedter, Jared Hallock, Eric Cole, Andrea Haskett, Katie Preston, Erin Van Engelen, Terry Heying, Tony Dragatoyu, Dan Aalbers, Valerie Baugh, Erin Westfall, Lee Vander Boegh and Brandon Bilbao -- do a creditable job of improvising and ad libbing. It's an impressive skill to see an actor do well, so even if there isn't much to the plot or the character development, it is fun to see the cast all reacting as their characters would to anything you say to them.

Awesome '80s Prom runs for one more night at 8:00 Aug. 29 at the El Korah Shrine on Idaho Street across from the Record Exchange. Costumes are optional.

Roundup

August

• Now through Aug. 14: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents The Boyfriend, a musical romantic comedy about an heiress who poses as a secretary and falls in love with a delivery boy who happens to be the missing son of the wealthy Lord Brockhurst. The show runs at 8:00 Aug. 8, 11 and 14 at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley.
  
• Now through Aug. 15: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Annie Get Your Gun, Irving Berlin's musical about Annie Oakley and her romance with the trick shooter in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The show runs at 8:00 Aug. 12 and 15 at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley.
• Aug. 17: Starlight Mountain Theatre opens the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The show runs Aug. 17, 19 and 21 at 8:00, Aug. 7 at 6:30 and Aug. 28-29 and Sept. 4-5 and 11-12 at 7:30 at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley.
• Aug. 21 and 29: Daisy's Madhouse has apparently decided to do the loosely scripted, partly improv show Awesome '80s Prom on these dates, but has not yet announced times or locations and as yet has no information about it on their MySpace page. Keep checking their page for details.
  
• Now through Aug. 22: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Footloose: The Musical, based on the hit movie from 1984. The show runs Aug. 7, 10, 13, 18, 20 and 22 at 8:00 at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley.
• Aug. 28: Stage Coach Theatre opens Duck Hunter Shoots Angel, a comedy by Mitch Albom about a tabloid reporter tracking down the story of two Alabama duck hunters who believe they shot an angel. The show runs Aug. 28-29 and Sept. 3-6 and 10-12 at 7:30 Thursdays, 8:15 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sunday at the theater in the Hillcrest Shopping Center breezeway at Orchard and Overland.
  
• Now through Aug. 28: The Idaho Shakespeare Festival presents The Mystery of Edwin Drood, an interactive musical mystery in which the audience gets to decide who killed the title character. The show runs Aug. 8-9, 13-14, 18-19, 22-23 and 27-28 at 7:00 Sundays and 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday at the theater on Warm Springs in Boise.
• Now through Aug. 28: Glenns Ferry Theatre presents Let Him Sleep 'til it's Time for His Funeral on Aug. 7, 14, 21 and 28 at 7:45 (dinner starts at 6:30) at 128 E. Idaho Ave. in Glenns Ferry.
• Now through Aug. 29: Glenns Ferry Theatre presents Blazing Guns at Roaring Gulch on Aug. 8, 15, 22 and 29 at 7:45 (dinner starts at 6:30) at 128 E. Idaho Ave. in Glenns Ferry.
• Now through Sept. 20: Boise Art Museum opens an exhibit called Devorah Sperber: Threads of Perception. Sperber arranges spools of colored thread in such a way that, when viewed through an optical device, recreates a famous work of art.
• Now through Aug. 30: The Idaho Shakespeare Festival presents Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's comedy about Sebastian and Viola, twins who are separated in a storm at sea, and the misplaced affections and mistaken intentions that ensue. The show runs Aug. 7, 11-12, 15-16, 20-21, 25-26, and 29-30 at 7:00 Sundays and 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday at the theater on Warm Springs in Boise.
• Now through Oct. 11: Tying It Together, an exhibition of drawings by Garden Valley artist James Castle, opens at the Boise Art Museum along with a short documentary about Castle, who was born deaf, never learned to read and write, and prefers to make his drawings on discarded scraps of paper and cardboard.
• Now through Nov. 8: Boise Art Museum opens an exhibition of sculpture by Ann Weber called Corrugated. The pieces are made from cardboard, are woven into giant gourd-like spires, and are up to 16 feet tall.
• Now through Nov. 15: Boise Art Museum presents Kid Stuff, an exhibit of art geared toward children by artists Deborah Barrett, Alexander Calder, Michael Corney, Benjamin Jones, Marianne Kolb, Marilyn Lanfear, David Gillhooley, Marilyn Lysohir, Renda Palmer and others.

Ben Wilson at Visual Arts Collective

I love Ben Wilson's art. His comic style is fantastic. His stuff appears on Boise Weekly covers a lot, and I've seen it a few times at the Basement Gallery, but this is the first time I've taken a stab at sketching one. This one was up at the Visual Arts Collective, and the boy in the costume reminded me vaguely of Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Granted, it's more of a pink fox costume, and the boy in the costume appears to be aiding some smaller creatures in green squirrel costumes while being menaced by a puppet, instead of terrorizing monsters far larger than himself. Wilson's inking style is a lot more spare than Maurice Sendak's, and it's one of the things that makes his art so recognizable. (I wish that came out better in my drawing; I think my original black and white pencil drawing captured it fairly well, but when I added the color it overwhelmed those lines.) And Wilson seems to favor elongated faces out of proportion with the rest of the body he's drawing, again unlike Sendak. But this picture nonetheless reminded me of that book for some reason, which is why a) I sketched it, and b) I feel totally justified in linking to the trailer for the Where the Wild Things Are movie coming out this October. Not sure how you stretch a story that short into a feature length film, but I guess we'll know then.

The Absence of a Cello

The description in the program notes that Absence of a Cello is a "refreshingly literate comedy" that starts out targeting "individuality versus conformity" but evolves into "an ingeniously conceived comical discussion of honesty and truth."

Don't be scared.

I know, it sounds highbrow. Intellectual. Maybe a little too smart for a fun night out (I sometimes think this is the same reason I don't get too many dates). But you're missing out if you miss this hilarious and well-acted show.

Yes, the main character, Andrew Pilgrim (Kevin Labrum) is a brilliant scientist applying for a job at a major corporation. Yes, his wife Celia Pilgrim, played by Jennifer Bertino Polidori, is a brilliant scholar of medieval literature. But they both do an excellent job of keeping their characters relatable; it may help that the plot of the play involves these two geniuses trying to pass themselves off as average Joes. Moreover, the other characters keep the show down to earth -- most notably Andrew's sister, Marian Jellicoe (Karen Holcomb), the wild child of the family, and jovial, rhyming company man Otis Clifton (Kevin Tuck), who comes to check out the family and see if they fit the corporate mold. The Pilgrims' kleptomaniac neighbor, Emma Littlewood (Kathleen Bailey), keeps everyone on their toes. And Ben Ulmen draws real sympathy as Littlewood's son Perry, who is hopelessly in love with the Pilgrims' daughter Joanna (Amanda Jacob).

The show is impeccably cast, and it's amazing to watch the interactions between the actors. Labrum and Bertino Polidori establish some excellent marital tension, while the witty flirtation between Holcomb and Tuck is absolutely delightful. The show's pacing is tight, and the comic delivery of its many one-liners is beautiful. And while the laughs come mainly from the dialogue, director Anthony Polidori and the cast paid plenty of attention to the potential for physical humor; Ulmen, Labrum, Tuck and Holcomb all have some nice moments where simple gestures and expressions garnered a lot of laughs because their movements betrayed what they were really thinking.

Absence of a Cello is smart, funny, clever and moving. It would be deceptive to leave out "smart," "clever," and "moving." But it would be a shame to miss out on how funny it is because you fear you're not up for something smart or clever. Take it from me -- the show is also very accessible. And it's definitely worth seeing.

John Killmaster at the Basement Gallery

I'm not sure landscapes are really my thing, so I'm not sure my sketch does this justice. But they are definitely John Killmaster's thing. He's got a great use of color and texture for fleshing out masses of rock, stubbly underbrush and soft pink clouds. This is Aspen Gulch -- City of Rocks. It's one of several of Killmaster's landscapes on display at the Basement Gallery right now.

Also on display at the Basement Gallery are some pictures by Tarmo Watia. I sketched one of his pictures during BOSCO's Open Studios Weekend. The one I sketched then is not among those that were at the Basement Gallery, but like I said then, there are literally thousands of paintings in his house.