A & E News

Frank Langella, Glynnis O’Connor and Tom Hulce star in Michael Pressman’s 1980 film, "Those Lips, Those Eyes", an affectionate remembrance of 1950s summer stock theatre that was filmed largely in Cain Park. The 1980 movie, which has never been released on DVD, will receive a rare theatrical screening on Saturday, Aug. 6, 7 p.m. at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, 11141 East Boulevard in University Circle.

Coventry Village, the street known for its eclectic mix of merchants and patrons, will host a number of fun-filled events this summer designed to celebrate the artist and free spirit in all of us. The Coventry Village Special Improvement District (SID) will sponsor two arts festivals, a music and movie series, and a pie fight.

Though underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar died last July, his works continue to be released posthumously. His latest book, Huntington, West Virginia "On the Fly" (Random House) was released April 26 and will be celebrated June 2 at an event at Mac’s Backs on Coventry.

The book chronicles Pekar’s encounters with a variety of characters in his everyday life, including a chapter titled “Neighborhood Spark Plug,” devoted to Steve Presser, owner of Coventry’s Big Fun.

Poem for June 2011

The trees are finally in full leaf, and the Cleveland Indians have the best record in major league baseball. We dare to hope, and the stadium fills. Not so fast, warns the poet, it’s early in the season.

            --Meredith Holmes

Shakespearean Baseball Sonnet #105

by Michael Ceraolo

Noble Road Presbyterian Church continues its annual tradition with its Strawberry Festival, June 10, 6-8 p.m. 

Cleveland has been a hotbed of rock and roll for more than five decades. “Visual Music: Northeast Ohio Photographers Look at Rock and Roll” presents the work of a dozen photographers who lived and worked in Northeast Ohio since the 1960s. Among them are three photographers who live and work in Cleveland Heights: G.M Donley, Aaron Mendelsohn, and Anastasia Pantsios, who is organizing and curating the show.

The show opens at the Zaller Building Gallery at 16006 Waterloo Road, in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, a block from the Beachland Ballroom, on Saturday, June 11, with a reception from 7 to 11 p.m. It’s free and open to the public. It will run through Saturday, June 25, concluding with an all-day open house from noon-8 p.m., to coincide with the Waterloo Arts Festival.

Over the years, the talented photographers in this show have documented Cleveland’s vibrant music scene from the Beatles to Bruce Springsteen to the White Stripes. Longtime Coventry Village resident Anastasia Pantsios has been shooting for 40 years, since she came to town to attend college. She currently has a show at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum titled "Girls on Film: 40 Years of Women in Rock."

Heights Arts has been envisioning an arts center for more than ten years. In the beginning, we imagined converting the former stables on the Severance property into such a facility, but realized that as a new organization we needed to build our own infrastructure rather than rebuild a physical structure. Then, the library offered us space in its newly acquired YMCA, which was slated to be developed into a community art space. As we waited several years for that construction to be approved and finished, we settled into a 900-square-foot storefront near the Cedar Lee Theatre—not exactly what one might envision as an arts center, but it became one as we developed programs that connected our community with its creative residents. When the library space finally became available, we kept our Lee Road gallery and added art classes and workshops at the library. 

Bert Stratton, the leader of the klezmer band Yiddishe Cup, performs "Klezmer Guy," an original prose-and-music show at Nighttown on Tuesday, June 14, at 7:30 p.m.

Cleveland Heights resident Marsha Dobrzynski was selected as a 2011 Cleveland Arts Prize recipient for her role as executive director of Young Audiences. Since 1994, her work has inspired young people in Northeast Ohio through arts and education.

Remember purchasing your first VCR and having to choose between Beta and VHS formats? While VHS dominated the consumer market, Beta became the preferred format among video professionals worldwide.

But it didn’t end there. Both here and overseas, dozens of other formats developed, along with DVD technology; and the situation couldn’t be more confusing. There are source formats (what comes out of the camera), editing formats, sharing formats, and archiving formats.

High Noon Haiku, a haiku poetry showdown featuring the region’s toughest Haiku poets, takes place one night only on Friday, May 20 at Dobama Theater, 2340 Lee Road, in Cleveland Heights. The event is produced jointly by Heights Arts and Dobama Theatre. Open mike and social hour start at 7 p.m., Haiku competition at 8 p.m.

Marcus Bales, poet and general arts impresario, reprises his role in the 2008 Haiku Death Match as master of ceremonies. (In deference to the Japanese survivors and victims of the March earthquake and tsunami, the contest was re-named “High Noon Haiku.”)

The defending champion, Haiku Master of the 2009 Haiku Death Match, is Kathleen Cerveny, of Shaker Heights. Geoffrey Landis, a prolific haiku poet, science fiction writer, and NASA scientist, was Kathleen’s main competition in the 2009 match, but will not be competing this year. High Noon Haiku organizers expect a lot of fresh talent to vie for the—well, there is no prize, just a good firm handshake from the m.c. and the adulation of the crowd.

For its next performance series, CityMusic Cleveland, whose mission is to expose non-traditional audiences to classical music and to break down the barriers to enjoyment through its free concert series performed in local venues throughout Northeast Ohio, is teaming up with Grammy Award nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz, who has built a reputation as a musical pioneer and inspired countless classical music lovers and new listeners by bringing his artistry to an array of novel venues.

Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC) mined the databases of large arts organizations, such the Ohio Arts Council, to provide a snapshot of where Cleveland-area artists are living. CPAC's “Putting Artists on the Map” study looks at the top artist districts by categories (musician, visual arts, literary), their educational attainment, and even alternative modes of transportation—how many artists bike or walk to work.

Every year, the Heights High Jazz Ensemble puts on a rousing spring concert, featuring about two hours of the music the group has perfected during the year. This year’s show is Friday, May 13, at 7 p.m. in the Cleveland Heights High School auditorium. Tickets are $5.

The first Mother's Day, proclaimed in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, was a passionate demand for disarmament and peace, according to Kathy Baker, spokesperson for the 4th annual Mother's Day Peace Party. The event will be Sunday, May 11, from 2 to 4 p.m, at the India Cultural Garden in Cleveland's Rockefeller Park.

Soprano Nell Snaidas, a favorite with Cleveland audiences from her many appearances with Apollo’s Fire, will return in June to sing tunes from the British Isles in a program called “Plaine & Saucy.” Sharing the stage with her will be the Apollo’s Fire Countryside Players and Apollo’s Fire artistic director and conductor Jeannete Sorrell, along with guests from the Baltimore Consort. We recently chatted with Snaidas.

The Ensemble Theatre is back in the Heights and offering area youth an opportunity to learn acting and theater skills this summer. After many years at the Cleveland Play House, the theater is opening in its new home in the former Coventry School with a summer and fall camp program.

Even while taking delight in our surroundings, we must come to terms with the inevitable snake in the grass.

Cain Park has announced its summer season of events, and ticket sales have begun.

Saturday, May 28, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., is Residents' Day at the Cain Park ticket office. On that day, residents of Cleveland Heights can purchase special seats that have been set aside for them. It is the city's way of showing appreciation for residents' support over the past 73 years.

CityMusic Cleveland’s mission is to break down barriers to the widespread enjoyment of classical music by offering free concerts in local Northeast Ohio venues. This month, the organization is confronting another barrier with a brand-new work that confronts the dangers of racism and prejudice, while promoting living together in harmony through music. 

Every Saturday morning for nine years, Gail Bellamy and her husband, Steve Bellamy, have met their longtime friend, Lakewood resident Pat Fernberg, at Tommy’s for breakfast. And every Saturday morning, the three friends have ordered a Maureen. They always get the same booth, and Amy Winne, always cheerfully takes their order. Who says tradition is dead?

Named after Maureen Duffy, a server at Tommy’s in the 1980s, the dish appears only on the breakfast menu (Monday through Saturday until 11:30 a.m., Sunday until 1:00 p.m.) The Maureen and a bottomless cup of Tommy’s excellent coffee is all you need to start the day – and maybe all you need to eat for the rest of the day.  It’s a hearty concoction of potatoes, broccoli, green peppers, onions, and tomatoes. (Cheese is extra.) Gail and Steve are vegetarians, and Pat describes herself as an omnivore, so the Maureen suits them all.

The venerable Tri-C JazzFest, now in its 32nd year, will swing into Nighttown, 12383 Cedar Rd., on Sunday, May 1 at 8 p.m. for a free concert as part of its debut series featuring rising stars in the jazz world.

Chicago-bred trumpet virtuoso Maurice Brown, whom critics call one of the most talented trumpeters of his generation, will make his Cleveland debut with this gig. His latest album “The Cycle of Love,” got a Best Album of 2010 nod from Huffington Post.

Beth Rutkowski, managing director of JazzFest, says the festival is committed to taking its artists to venues around town. “We want to bring the music to people so we’re bridging the divide between east, west and downtown. Nighttown is one of our favorite spots, and we know that Heights jazz lovers will turn out to hear this amazing young musician.”

During the 10-day run of the fest from April 28 – May 8, you’ll find major jazz artists at such diverse venues as...

We had to choose between two big cats. To celebrate my husband’s recent birthday (a big one) in New York City, we planned to attend either The Lion King (he’s a fan of director Julie Taymor) or Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, written by former Clevelander and 1992 Heights High graduate Rajiv Joseph.

The Cleveland International Film Festival is now underway; Jim Simler and Jewel Moulthrop are deeply immersed and blogging about their experience – including brief reviews of the movies they see. To catch everything they have to say about the movies and the festival, follow this link to the "Film Festival" tag cloud on the Heights Observer/Blogs: http://blogs.heightsobserver.org/tag/film-festival/.

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Art aficionados and music mavens will come together to support local public schools on Friday, May 6, at 6:30 p.m. at the B-Side Lounge in Coventry Village.

Nineteen years ago, only one public elementary school in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights district had an art teacher. This unfortunate situation occurred because when it became necessary to cut the district budget, the arts were considered expendable rather than essential. 

Thanks to a Canterbury PTA initiative working with the administration and union, art teachers were hired for all of the elementary schools in 1994.

Ten select Cleveland Heights High alumni will come together to create the “Once Again. Cleveland Heights Throwback Artist Showcase” at the Euclid Tavern (11625 Euclid Ave.) in University Circle, starting at 8 p.m. on April 22. The all-Heights lineup will offer a variety of musical genres from alternative and gospel to jazz and hip-hop. Many of the musicians have recording contracts and are associated with award-winning musical artists.

Mia Moore, a 1995 graduate of Heights High, is the executive producer of the show. Her friend Brian Williams, a fellow alumnus, mentioned that it would be great to see Cleveland Heights High artists come together, and Moore said she could do that. Within two weeks, with an amazing team of Heights alumni, she had put together a full-blown concert.

What do you call 6th, 7th and 8th grade students that make up Wiley Middle School’s Challenge Choir of University Heights, Ohio? Returning champions. But before this championship choir can defend its ranking, it must raise the funds needed to cover travel expenses.

Wiley Challenge Choir is asking the community's assistance in raising $10,000 by purchasing tickets to this year’s Jazz in Spring Benefit Concert. The event will take place at 2:00 Sunday, April 17, at Nighttown Restaurant, 12387 Cedar Road in Cleveland Heights. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 the day of show. For tickets and information call 216-407-7258 or e-mailing wileymscc@gmail.com.

While a restaurant with a philosophy of instilling happiness in its customers may not seem like the ideal recipe for success, A Phiner Bistro has the perfect elements to give other small restaurant owners a run for their money. 

Owner Phiner Dike, a native of Lagos, Nigeria, places just as much emphasis on her customers as she does on creating delicious cuisine. The bistro, located at 2199 Lee Road, 10 minutes from John Carroll University’s campus, opened in January 2011 hoping to draw people from the Cedar Lee Theatre and the surrounding area. It was established in 2006 in Avon, Ohio, where it developed a loyal customer base that travels the 40 minutes to the East Side for weekly visits. The atmosphere of the bistro is an intimate setting brightened by sunshine yellow walls and snapshots of vibrant flowers on canvas. It’s a fitting environment for the menu designed by Dike, which she described as “eclectic, young and fresh.”

John Stark Bellamy II, author of The Last Days of Cleveland, returns to Cleveland Heights on Saturday, April 16, for a special appearance at the Coventry Village branch of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library (1925 Coventry Road). His talk, which takes place from 3 to 4 p.m., is free and open to the public.

Bellamy, a native and former resident of Cleveland Heights, will share stories about some of the sensational murders, scandalous trials, tragic mishaps, and other tales of mystery and mayhem from Cleveland’s past.

Talor Smith, a sophomore at Ohio University and 2009 graduate of Shaker Heights High School plays the Grog Shop stage this Friday, March 4 as a principal member of The Ridges. The group will open for the headliner, French “pop de chambre” band Revolver.

The Ridges are an indie folk group from Athens, Ohio, blending indie rock melodies with moody folk sensibility and live improvisation. A three piece acoustic act; the group plays with a regularly rotating cast of guest musicians. This concert will include two other Shaker alumni, Sarah Edgerton (2008) on viola and violin, and Allie Levin (2010) on cello and auxiliary percussion. All three alumni participated in Shaker Chamber Orchestra.

For the sixth consecutive year, the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) holds a special screening at its original home, the Cedar Lee Theatre in Cleveland Heights. The film "With Love, From the Age of Reason" screens on Thursday, March 31 at 7:15 p.m. For the third year in a row, this special night is presented in memory Rick Whitbeck, of one of the CIFF’s founders. 

Three Cleveland Heights youths will star in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” produced by the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Drama Dreamers theater program. Heights High seniors Gwen Donley and Zena Levan and Hathaway Brown senior Lydia Simon landed lead roles in the musical.

Drama Dreamers is a unique theater program that is entirely student run. Youths in grades 6-12 make up the cast, band and tech crew, and serve as director, set designer, stage manager and choreographer. It is a special opportunity for students to experience all aspects of theater, while exploring productions that encourage them to develop personally and spiritually through religious dramatic material. Although the program is run through St. Paul’s, it is open to young people of all backgrounds.

Veronika Skuplik, an early music expert and violinist from Germany, will guest conduct Apollo’s Fire in “Mysteries, Sacred and Profane: 17th Century German Chamber Music,” on March 4 and 5. The concerts are at 8 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 2747 Fairmount Boulevard.

Conceived in 1992, Apollo’s Fire has grown under the creative and single-minded guidance of conductor Jeannette Sorrell. In every way, Sorrell is the mother of the Cleveland Baroque orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, which has grown from a small, but gifted, regional troupe to one whose recordings are broadcast to audiences throughout the world.

CityMusic Cleveland will present critically acclaimed violinist Dylana Jenson in its March 16–20 concert series. The Cleveland Heights performance is Wednesday, March 16 at 7:30 p.m., at Fairmount Presbyterian Church, 2757 Fairmount Boulevard.

Joel Smirnoff will conduct Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto in D, Op.35” and Georges Bizet’s “Symphony in C.” Reservations are required for free childcare services. Call 216-321-5800.

Winged monkeys, tornadoes, silver slippers, green sunglasses, witches, Winkies, Munchkins, little dogs, flower children, and a mice squad - OH MY! From the story of Dorothy and her friends to a set and costumes made of recycled materials, Heights Youth Theatre (HYT) presents "The Wiz," directed by Treva Offutt.

Set in the present, Dorothy is forced outside of her comfort zone and into the land of Oz where she, the Tinman,  Scarecrow and Lion must look within to find their way back to themselves.

If John Ewing’s smile seems a little broader these days, it is probably because he’s been knighted by the French government. He is Sir John now. In a ceremony on Feb. 3 at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA), Ewing officially became a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters of the Republic of France, an honor he shares with T.S. Eliot, Rudolf Nureyev, Robert Redford and David Bowie, among others.

As director of the Cinematheque and associate director of film at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), Ewing has brought more than 8,500 films—many of them from France—to Cleveland audiences for more than two decades.

The Western Reserve Chorale, under the leadership of artistic director J. D. Goddard, will perform Johann Michael Haydn's "Requiem in C Minor" in its concert on Sunday, March 13, at 7 p.m., at Grace Lutheran Church, 13001 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights.

Johann Michael Haydn (1737–1806) was the younger brother of the more famous composer, Franz Joseph Haydn. In 1762, the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg, Count Sigismund Schrattenbach, appointed Michael Haydn court composer and concertmaster.

Hazel Collister Hutchison (1893 to 1977) was a critically acclaimed, widely published poet, who was born in Cleveland and spent most of her life in Cleveland Heights. She used the pen name “Collister Hutchison” and lived for many years on Grandview Avenue. After graduating from Western Reserve University, she spent a year in France, studying at the Sorbonne. Hutchison taught in the Cleveland public schools for 46 years. Her best-known book, Toward Daybreak was published in 1950 and features drawings done especially for the author by Marc Chagall. The Hazel Collister Hutchison Contemporary Poetry Room at the Cleveland State University Poetry Center is named in her honor.

Dobama Theatre starts the New Year with new works by local playwrights and the Verlezza Dance Company. Starting Jan. 21, the theater presents GYMworks, two weekends of scenes from new plays written by local playwrights in Dobama’s GYM program and a new work by the Verlezza Dance Company.

Committed to producing new works by new and established playwrights, Dobama offers the Playwrights’ GYM, which provides local playwrights with the opportunity to workshop new works and to collaborate with a director. The GYM's goal is to nurture new work in a safe environment, provide the "exercise equipment” needed to write a play, produce a new group of directors and develop plays to be performed at Dobama.

Laura Cooperman, a 2001 graduate of Cleveland Heights High School, received a one-year, $20,000 fellowship for her outstanding work as an artist in Cuyahoga County.

She was named on Dec. 10 as one of 20 artists to receive a Creative Workforce Fellowship. The Community Partnership for Arts and Culture (CPAC), the organization that operates the program, convened a panel of seven experts from around the country to judge the applications. After six weeks of studying the entire applicant pool at home, followed by a four-day public adjudication session, they unanimously approved the 20 finalists. Applications, which were anonymous to the panel, were judged based on the basis of artistic merit and written statements by the artists about how they would use the fellowship.

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If you look for exciting and fun things to do as well as a cheerful outlook, just keep track of Cathy and Demetrious Rezos of University Heights. 

Demetrious grew up in Cleveland and upon returning from the 1968 European Tennis Tour, heard the siren call of California and relocated to Newport Beach to become a teaching and tennis professional. Along the way he met Cathy, fell in love, got married, managed to blow his knees out playing and teaching, turned to the construction business and quickly became “The Contractor to the Stars.”

Park Senior Adults and B’nai Jeshuran Hazak hosted “And All That Jazz” featuring Joel Smirnoff, president of Cleveland Institute of Music, and CIM students in concert on Nov. 21. More than 160 guests, one of the largest crowds ever, attended the annual concert and dinner event.

A crash of drums. A flash of light! Heights Youth Theater presents a brand-new production of one of the most colorful musicals of all time, Andrew Lloyd Webber's, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," directed by Sean Szaller.

You may have seen this show before, but people connected with the show say that the company is excited to present a whole new spin on this famous tale. Drawn from the Bible, the story follows Joseph as he is sold into slavery by his own jealous brothers, thrown in jail for a crime he didn't commit and, ultimately, rises to power as Pharaoh's right-hand man.

Most 21st-century Americans are not very good at waiting, but the speaker in this poem has cultivated a single-minded ability to stand in line for what he wants.

Once a year CityMusic Cleveland presents a holiday program for families to celebrate the beginning of a joyous month with a program of great musical gems. The concerts are free, and attendees can bring their familes, friends and neighbors.

Joel Smirnoff will lead CityMusic Cleveland in a program of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" and Tchaikovsky's "Serenade." And, once again, Soprano Chabrelle Williams will return with her astonishing voice, to sing excerpts from Handel's "Messiah." Kyung Sun Lee, violinist, who played at the very first, CityMusic concert in 2004, will return to play the "Four Seasons."

Eight years of increasing sales at Heights Arts Gallery on Lee Road has encouraged the organization to expand into the adjacent storefront at the corner of the Cedar Lee Building, recently vacated by Aoeshi. A lead grant from The George Gund Foundation, architectural services donated by Studio Techne, and a storefront grant from the City of Cleveland Heights, for signage, are helping to initiate the expansion.

Poem for December 2010

The Western Reserve Chorale (WRC) opens its 2010-2011 season on Sunday, Dec. 12 with music for chorus and brass, featuring Daniel Pinkham’s "Christmas Cantata" and Giovani Gabrieli’s "Plaudite Omnis Terra."  Also, in keeping with the season, there will be works by composers from the 1500s to present day. The performance begins at 7 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 13001 Cedar Road, in Cleveland Heights.

Daniel McNamara and Diana Sette were full-time members of the Vermont-based, politically radical Bread and Puppets Theater when they came to McNamara's parents' Cleveland Heights home for a winter holiday break in 2007. While here, they staged a New Year's Eve puppetry event, “Funeral March for the Rotten Ideas of 2007."

Their intent was to bury all the rotten events of the old year and start the new year clean. One of these new starts was Sette and McNamara creating and producing Possibilitarian Puppet Theater (PPT) in Cleveland Heights.

Heights Youth Theatre will bring "Our Town" to University Heights in December. Thornton Wilder’s American classic about the citizens of Grover’s Corners addresses the subjects of love, marriage and death within the context of life in a small New England town at the start of the 20th century. With the Stage Manager as the audience’s guide, the play is a character study that centers around George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose mutual affection grows and affects decisions that determine the course of their lives. 

In October, the trustees for Cuyahoga Arts & Culture announced grantees for its 2011 funding cycle. More than 130 new and returning organizations from throughout Cuyahoga County will share in nearly $15 million over the coming year. Just over half of that funding will go to 32 organizations that are based in Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and University Circle.

“More people need to be aware of the incredible impact that this public funding for the arts is having in this region,” said Steven Minter, CAC board president. “Every dollar of CAC funding is an investment in the economic development of our county, helping to bring about ticket sales, event attendance, which leads to more restaurant and nightlife activity, which results in greater income and salaries, which goes back into our region’s tax base. It’s a great symbiotic process.”

The Cedar Lee Theatre, which opened its doors on Christmas Day 1925, turns 85 this year. 

Operated by Cleveland Cinemas, the Cedar Lee, at 2163 Lee Road, in Cleveland Heights, is the home for motion pictures from around the world and a true landmark in Northeast Ohio. To celebrate this milestone, Cleveland Cinemas is throwing a party at the theater on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

"An Artist's Journey Through Schizophrenia,” a new exhibit at Forest Hill Church from artist Daryl Musick, features works spanning 30 years of struggle, determination and healing through art.

Musick, a Euclid native, said that when he started carving wooden sculptures in 1982, he knew art was something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. His show at Forest Hill will feature 10 carvings, 15 oil paintings and 150 prints, mixed media and other works.

In spring of 1986, Musick was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was hospitalized in 1987 and again in 1991, when he joined Planned Lifetime Assistance Network (PLAN) of Northeast Ohio, a nonprofit group that provides social work services. He has been seeing a social worker for about 20 years and said it has been a major factor in his recovery.

For much of his life, Musick has also focused on art as therapy, earning his undergraduate degree and acceptance, in 2001, into the art therapy program at Ursuline College. He also earned a master’s degree in art therapy counseling.

Uzizi is a 5-piece alternative rock band with a 12-member choir from Cleveland Heights. Under the direction of Craig Matis, Uzizi has performed in Northeast Ohio, New York City, and throughout the United Kingdom since the early 1980s.  

Some people hang art on the wall and some people just wear it. The Textile Art Alliance (TAA) of the Cleveland Museum of Art held its 7th annual Wearable Art Fashion Show & Boutique on Oct. 17, in Mentor, to a sellout crowd of more than 500 guests. Volunteers modeled more than 50 wearable items during the luncheon runway show.

The Musical Art Society opened its 99th season on Oct. 8 in Cleveland Heights in the home of Susan Blackwell. The society was founded in 1912 to preserve and advance musical culture. Both performing and nonperforming women members meet monthly, as they have for 99 years, in private homes for luncheons and to enjoy a music program performed by the group's members.

We’ve all had the experience: you’re enjoying a concert or having dinner with friends, when a cell phone starts to ring. One ring, two rings, three . . . OK, this is really becoming annoying. Just answer the phone already, or I’ll answer it for you, you think angrily. But would you really do that, if you knew in advance that answering someone else’s phone was going to send you hurtling down a rabbit hole into a wonderland of self-discovery and transformation?

Welcome to the world of "Dead Man’s Cell Phone" by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl. The play, which The New Yorker drama critic, John Lahr, describes as “a meditation on death, love, and disconnection in the digital age,” is Dobama Theatre’s second offering of the 2010-11 season.

A VidStar epilogue. For Les & Staff,

Sometimes the victory of David over Goliath is not so clear-cut.

Goliath may appear dead.

His lifeless body—like hoarded mounds of lunch-meat—, a stone

beside his giant head (a runaway skin-mole),

& afterwards a crime chalk-line that’ll keep the kids hop-scotching for years.

Poem for November 2010

Nature, closely observed is the greatest entertainment.

            --Meredith Holmes

Squirrel Recess

By Christine Howey