Penn Cinema Partner Plans York Theater

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting York County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cinema entrepreneur Penn Ketchum is heeding the advice of 19th century American newspaper editor Horace Greeley.

“Go west, young man.”

Ketchum, managing partner of Penn Cinema, intends to develop a small, luxury two-screen movie theater in York city.

But he said Friday that he has no intention of going south into Lancaster city and doing the same kind of project there.

Ketchum’s $750,000 venture in York was disclosed Thursday by York Mayor Kim Bracey in her State of the City address.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/848107_Penn-Cinema-partner-plans-York-theater.html#ixzz2T2FcRToY

Norristown Arts Hill Festival Set For May 4

Location of Norristown in Montgomery County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NORRISTOWN ­­— The fourth annual Norristown Arts Hill Festival on May 4 will have more than 30 music, theater, dance and spoken word acts on DeKalb Street from Lafayette Street to Penn Street.

The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the street will be closed to traffic from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.  Traffic on Main Street will continue throughout the festival day.  The Showcase Stage on DeKalb Street, across from the Centre Theater, will start with children’s acts from 10 a.m. to noon.

The festival will feature “Kids Corner,” a family-friendly, child-friendly performance, vending and activity area located in the 200 block of DeKalb Street.  Other musical acts are scheduled for later in the day on the Showcase stage.

The Festival Stage, on DeKalb Street above Penn, will feature 30-minute musical acts that will begin on the hour, said Richard Rogers Jr., the president of the Norristown Arts Council.

Read more:  http://www.timesherald.com/article/20130427/NEWS01/130429586/norristown-arts-hill-festival-set-for-may-4

Muhlenberg’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ Brings Beaumarchais’s 18th Century Comedy To A Modern Audience

Logo of Muhlenberg College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Allentown, Pa – “The Marriage of Figaro” is known worldwide to opera aficionados and Bugs Bunny fans from the opera composed by W.A. Mozart. Less well-known to modern audiences is the 1784 comedy by French playwright Beaumarchais, upon which Mozart based his opera.

The Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance Department will present the Beaumarchais play as the finale to its 2012-13 Mainstage Series, April 25-28. Directed by Francine Roussel, the production will feature an original score by composer and musician Mike Krisukas, known to Lehigh Valley audiences as the guitarist and lead songwriter for the band Zen For Primates.

“‘The Marriage of Figaro’ is so well built, the characters so real, and the spirit of the play so uplifting that it deserves exposure to an American audience,” Roussel says. “Opera buffs may know the Mozart classic, but less often the play on which it is based. On Beaumarchais’ behalf, we hope to rectify that inequity.”

Writing a few years before the French Revolution, Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais pours his rage at the aristocracy into “The Marriage of Figaro,” which manages equal parts hilarity and outrage. First produced in 1784, the play was a sequel to “The Barber of Seville,” picking up three years after the wedding of the Count and Countess that concludes that play. Now Figaro, the Count’s valet, plans to marry, but the Count has tired of his lovely Countess and lusts for Figaro’s bride-to-be, Suzanne. He determines to revive the ancient “droit du seigneur” — the lord of the manor’s right to bed any new bride on her wedding night.

Figaro, Suzanne and the Countess concoct a counter-plot, but the Count’s page, Cherubin, makes hash of it through his passionate crush on the Countess. The multiple layers of misunderstanding yield what Roussel calls “one of the most perfect farce scenes of all time,” in one of the most scathing critiques of aristocratic privilege ever written.

“Le droit du seigneur — while anathema to modern sensibilities — was the ‘natural order’ for the aristocracy in much of 18th century Europe,” Roussel says. “Beaumarchais had the temerity to write a comedy about this shocking practice, subtly undermining class privilege, exposing gender inequalities, and revolutionizing the condition of women. Danton claimed that ‘Figaro killed off the nobility.’ Perhaps — but with laughter, not the guillotine.”

Krisukas says his starting point for the show’s original score was his and Roussel’s mutual interest in Spanish flamenco styles.

“Part of the excitement in entering a new artistic project is the opportunity to be quickly thrust into a new world,” Krisukas says. “It’s like going on a journey and immersing yourself in some new land with its own culture, language, history and artistic perspective.”

The production also features original choreography by Nina Pongratz, scenic and lighting design by Curtis Dretsch, and costume design by Liz Covey.

“All Will End with Joyful Songs: A Panel Discussion” will be held Thursday, April 25, at 12:30 p.m. in the Recital Hall, Baker Center for the Arts. This discussion will provide unique perspectives on the content and context of “The Marriage of Figaro.” Theatre professor James Peck and French professor Kathy Wixon will moderate the discussion. The panel will include Roussel, Krisukas, Pongratz, and students of Wixon’s French Theatre of the Resistance course.

Muhlenberg College is a liberal arts college of 2,200 students in Allentown, Pa. The college offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance. The Princeton Review consistently ranks Muhlenberg’s production program in the top ten in the nation, and the Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theater and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States.

Performances of “The Marriage of Figaro” are April 25-28: Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m and Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for LVAIC students, faculty and staff and for patrons 17 and under.

Performances are in the Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre and Dance, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown. Performance information and tickets are available at 484-664-3333 or http://www.muhlenberg.edu/theatre.

DeMedici II Will Buy Former GlaxoSmithKline Building For New String Theory School

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Philadelphia County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A new performing arts charter high school says it has sealed a deal to open in the fall at GlaxoSmithKline‘s former North American headquarters at 16th and Vine Streets.

Under terms that will be announced Thursday, a nonprofit associated with the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School has agreed to buy the curving, eight-story building for $29 million for the String Theory High School for the Arts and Sciences.  It will be the first charter high school in the city focused on the performing arts.

The nonprofit, DeMedici Corporation II, expects to finance the property with tax-exempt bonds from the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID), according to Mary D’Anella, spokeswoman for String Theory Schools, which manages the charter.

“It’s the most exciting high school this city has opened in a generation,” said Angela Corosanite, chief executive officer of the nonprofit String Theory, and founder of it and the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130328_DeMedici_II_will_buy_former_GlaxoSmithKline_building_for_new_String_Theory_School.html

The Next Page: High Point Pittsburgh’s Lofty Ambition

U.S. Steel Tower in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Imagine this incredible Downtown experience. You enter the lower elevator station on the Seventh Avenue side of the U.S. Steel Tower. As you rise up the side of the building in a glass elevator, the cityscape expands to ever-longer perspectives up the Allegheny River.  As magnificent as these vistas are, they’re a mere prelude to the scenic wonderland at the top.

Welcome to High Point Pittsburgh!

A glass atrium encloses the building’s entire 1-acre rooftop, creating 60,000 square feet of interior space on two levels and a glass-walled, open-air promenade at the very top.

High Point Pittsburgh’s heart is Stage HP, a spacious center area and performance venue.  The main floor also features the Gallery of Interactive Arts; the New Top of the Triangle restaurant; Pie-in-the-Sky cafe; and The High Bar, the city’s loftiest watering hole.  “Viewseums,” expansive garden areas in each corner of the triangular structure, are places to ponder the amazing vistas.  Glass-floored sections look down 850 feet to the streets below.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/the-next-page-high-point-pittsburghs-lofty-ambition-678719/#ixzz2NMv9BiB4

Click this link to be taken to the project website:  http://highpointpark.org/the-investigation

Spring Saving Craft Fair

Walnut Woods of Boyertown

Saturday, March 23, 11am-4pm

35 North Walnut Street, Boyertown

Vendors Needed!

Arts and crafts vendors wanted.  Direct sales vendors wanted (home party vendors).  No fee.  Please provide you own table.  Spots will be 6 feet.  Please call to reserve your spot.  Spots are limited.

Contact Jessica at 610-367-6616

Downtown Lancaster’s Ware Center Alive With Activity

That beehive of activity known as The Ware Center is open for business once again.

After taking a winter break, the Millersville University facility at 42 N. Prince St. will host more than 65 events between late this month and the end of May.

A number of series will be ongoing throughout the school year.  Among the themes are poetry, jazz, opera, theater, dance, art, film, lectures and a Family Fun Fest for children and parents.  ”This year is pretty crowded,” notes Harvey Owen, center director.  ”There is something here or at the Winter Center (Millersville University’s other major performing arts center, which is on campus) almost every night.”

Local performers and a wide array of national and international acts are on the schedule.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/806238_Downtown-Ware-Center-alive-with-activity.html#ixzz2Ikf76ANM

‘Master Choreographers’ Dance Concert, Feb. 7-9, Displays Talents Of Acclaimed Choreographers, More Than 40 Dancers

Logo of Muhlenberg College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Allentown, Pa. — Muhlenberg College will showcase world premiere dance works created by five of the region’s most accomplished choreographers and two restagings by internationally acclaimed choreographers, in the College’s annual “Master Choreographers” dance concert, Feb. 7-9.

“This concert is a spectacular evening of ballet, tap, jazz, and contemporary dance,” said Karen Dearborn, the director of dance for Muhlenberg’s Department of Theatre & Dance, and the artistic director for “Master Choreographers.” “We are fortunate to be showcasing new works by internationally acclaimed guest artists and faculty.”

The performance will take place on the Empie Theatre stage, in Muhlenberg’s Baker Center for the Arts.

This season’s “Master Choreographers” concert will feature a restaging of the second movement of “Viva Vivaldi,” the Joffrey Ballet‘s signature work, choreographed by Gerald Arpino and restaged for Muhlenberg by Trinette Singleton, co-artistic director of Repertory Dance Company and longtime Joffrey Ballet dancer.

Singleton was the first dancer to appear on the cover of a national news magazine (Time, in 1968). She is featured prominently in the recent Joffrey documentary, “The Joffrey Ballet: The Mavericks of American Dance,” and is one of a handful of choreographers entrusted with restaging Joffrey pieces around the country.

“When it’s your own choreography, you have total license,” Singleton says. “When you’re restaging, you have to stick as closely as possible to the choreographer’s original vision. It’s almost a little more nerve racking restaging someone else’s choreography, because you want to get it right.”

The evening will also feature a restaged work by Danish choreographer Charlotte Boye-Christensen, artistic director of the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, as well as world-premiere works by: Corrie Franz Cowart, co-artistic director of Co-Art Dance; Heidi Cruz-Austin, co-artistic director of DanceSpora and a Pennsylvania Ballet alumna; Dorrell Martin, founder and executive artistic director of LEON Dance Arts NY; Shelley Oliver, director of Shelley Oliver Tap Dancers; and Jeffrey Peterson, former dancer with Danny Buraczeski’s JAZZDANCE.

Shelley Oliver’s tap piece, “Inspiration Calls to Me,” will feature a live performance by the David Leonhardt Jazz Group. She says that the band and the dancers both feed off of the synergy of live collaboration.

“When the music is performed live,” Oliver says, “the dancers hear the work exactly as they know it, but with live embellishments that just bring the work to the next level. During performance, the band influences the dancers’ energy, and the dancers’ rhythms influence the band.”

“Master Choreographers” features performances by more than 40 Muhlenberg dance students, in a wide range of contrasting styles, from classical ballet to cutting-edge contemporary. One piece from the latter end of the spectrum is “Passage,” by Dorrell Martin, one of this season’s guest choreographers. Martin says he has found the process of working with Muhlenberg’s dancers to be particularly rewarding.

“Karen gave me the freedom to set whatever inspired me,” Martin says. “A lot of the movement is movement that I have been working on a while. A lot of it came from the heart and just from the music itself. I have wanted to set this piece on my company for a while now. This gave me the opportunity to try out the concept, movement, and music on the Muhlenberg dancers first.

“The Muhlenberg dancers were really a delight to work with,” he says. “Sometimes there are dancers that are used to moving a certain way but the Muhlenberg dancers were open and willing to accept new movement on their bodies. I love that sense of freedom because it opens me up to explore more movement.”

Muhlenberg College is a liberal arts college of about 2,200 students in Allentown, Pa. The College offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance. The Fiske Guide to Colleges lists both the theater and dance programs among the top small college programs in the United States. Muhlenberg is one of only eight colleges to be listed in Fiske for both theater and dance.

Performances of “Master Choreographers” will take place Thursday and Friday, Feb. 7-8, at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 9, at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for patrons 17 and under and for students, faculty and staff of LVAIC colleges. Performances are in the Empie Theatre, in the Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown. Information and tickets are available at 484-664-3333 or www.muhlenberg.edu/dance.

Theaters, Playhouses Fear Financial Problems And Technical Demands Will Lower Their Curtains

At Oyster Mill Playhouse, the aging rooftop heating and air conditioning system is threatening to stage a death scene worthy of “King Lear.”

With audiences — and therefore revenues — down, there’s no money for a replacement, so managers of the not-for-profit community theater in East Pennsboro Twp. are hoping the community will donate about $25,000 to keep Oyster Mill going for another year.

“Like many other theaters, we are having our financial problems,” said Howard Hurwitz, vice president of the 91-seat theater’s board of directors. “This year has been kind of a bad year. We just haven’t been getting the attendance. We used to sell out on opening nights, but now we are lucky if we get the theater half-full.”

Oyster Mill is far from alone.

Read more:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/11/oyster_mill_playhouse_theaters.html

‘Moving Stories’ Dance Concert Showcases Innovative Work By Student Choreographers In A Nationally Acclaimed Program

Logo of Muhlenberg College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Allentown, Pa. — Muhlenberg College dancers tell their stories through movement, as the Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance Department presents “Moving Stories,” a showcase for dance works created by emerging choreographers, Nov. 15-17 in the College’s Baker Theatre.  Artistic director Karen Dearborn says the 10 choreographers selected for the program have created sophisticated and innovative dances, informed by their liberal arts education, and intended to probe and illuminate the human experience.

“‘Moving Stories’ is designed to inspire and challenge audiences,” Dearborn says.  ”These visually lush dances offer a view of our present and future through contemporary eyes.  It is always exciting to be enveloped in these kinetic and symbolic works of art — to be moved by the movement.”

The concert will showcase 50 dancers from the department’s dance program, which is among the most highly regarded programs of its kind.  The concert features costume and lighting designs by the department’s acclaimed professional staff.

The ten original dances include contemporary ballet, jazz styles and modern works that investigate perpetual motion, the fight or flight response, trust in relationships, and a neuroscience take on active/passive brain and body activity.  The dances range in tone from the comedic to the serious.

Muhlenberg College’s Theatre & Dance Department offers one of the top-rated college performance programs in the county, according to the Princeton Review rankings.  Muhlenberg is a liberal arts college of more than 2,200 students in Allentown, Pa., offering Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance.  It has been named annually among The Fiske Guide to Colleges’ top 20 small college programs in the United States, and the American College Dance Festival Association has consistently recognized dances premiered on the Muhlenberg stage for excellence in choreography and performance.

“Moving Stories” runs Nov. 15-17 in the Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, MuhlenbergCollege, 2400 Chew St., Allentown.

Performances are Thursday and Friday, Nov. 15-16, at 8 p.m.; and Saturday, Nov. 17, at 2 and 8 p.m.  Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for patrons 17 and under, and $8 for students, faculty and staff of all LVAIC colleges.  For groups of 15 or more, tickets are $13.

Tickets and information are available at 484-664-3333 or http://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/academics/theatre-dance/

Worker-Owned Businesses Might Be Answer To Unemployment In Reading

With poverty high in Reading, city officials are willing to try just about anything to create decent-paying jobs.

Friday afternoon, they heard a pitch for an idea that has worked elsewhere and might be just right in Reading.

Seattle-based filmmakers Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin, in town for the Berks Arts Council’s seventh annual Greater Reading Film Festival, were the featured guests at a lunchtime roundtable session focused on employee-owned businesses.

Young and Dworkin have created a documentary on the subject titled, “Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work,” which will be screened during the festival.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=423673

Creating Beauty In West Reading, One Tile At A Time

On the sidewalk along Penn Avenue in West Reading, Pam Roule glued down glass tiles under the late morning sun.

“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” the borough resident said as she placed the small pieces. “These are the clouds.”

Nearby, Mayor Shane J. Keller cut additional pieces of glass as the occasional West Reading Farmers Market patron stopped, groceries in hand, to view the progress on what eventually will be one of five mosaics on Chestnut Street near West Reading Elementary Center.

“The more you work with it, the more you learn,” said Roule, an artist with a studio on Playground Drive. “And it gets kind of addicting.”

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=422717

 

GoggleWorks Arts Festival A Big Draw

Her travel plans to the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts were set a week in advance.

But early Sunday morning, Gail Rosenkrantz woke up in her New York apartment, hailed a cab to the Port Authority and wasn’t quite sure about where she was going.

Finally, after catching the 9 a.m. Bieber Tourways bus to Reading, she sat down and heard the question that was already on her mind:  ”Why are you going to Reading?  It’s so dangerous,” another passenger asked.

Upon arriving at her destination, however, the 72-year-old legal secretary walked into the inaugural arts festival Reading and found the soft silk scarves she sought, along with welcoming gestures from strangers.

Read more:  http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=422432

Millersville University Unveils $26 Million Arts Center

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Millersville University music student Brian Doherty remembers the time — think last year — when he had to scrounge to find an open space to practice drums.

Now, he and the other 130 music department majors at MU have a choice of 17 practice modules where the 4-inch-thick steel walls mean that Doherty can bang away and not disturb a violin player mere feet away.

“This is a blessing right here,” the senior from Mechanicsburg said Sunday of the Charles R. and Anita B. Winter Visual and Performing Arts Center during an open house to introduce the $26 million facility to the public.

The three-year project has produced a complex of cutting-edge performance, concert and recital halls built around a renovated Lyte Auditorium, which had hosted the university’s major cultural offerings since 1949.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/757166_Millersville-University-unveils–26-million-arts-center.html#ixzz29NeJs74S

New GoggleWorks Director Brings Musical Background

On Saturday night, Phil Walz, executive director of the Greater Akron Musical Association Inc., worked through a major symphony concert, then handed over his keys.  On Sunday, he packed his truck and drove to Pennsylvania.

Today, he begins work as the new executive director of the eight-year-old GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Second and Washington streets.

“I see the opportunity to work in Reading as a real honor,” said Walz, 54.  ”The GoggleWorks’ mission ‘to nurture the arts, foster creativity, promote education, and enrich the community’ is simple yet inspiring.”

He replaces Diane LaBelle, who had overseen the 2004 transformation of a vacant, four-story factory that once made safety equipment into a series of artists’ studios and public spaces, then led its operation for six years.  She left in June 2010.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=420979

Reading Neighborhood Named Historic District

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After four years of work, it’s official: The Heights Conservation District in northeast Reading has been approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission as a historic district.

But one with a kinder, gentler set of rules that now can be implemented.

“It’s a very huge sense of accomplishment,” said Amy Johnson, the city’s historic preservation specialist who worked with the neighborhood organizing committee and the museum commission.

The district is composed of College Heights, Hampden Heights and the areas around them. It’s bounded by Oak Lane and Robeson, Rockland and 13th streets, and includes most of Hampden Park.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=420978

GoggleWorks Open-Air Studio Livens Up 400 Block Of Penn

The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts brought the arts downtown Wednesday with painters, potters, sculptors and more.

Eighteen artists came to the center’s first open-air studio in the 400 block of Penn Street.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=420121

‘On The Town’ Captures ‘Young Soaring Spirit Of The Country,’ Bringing Out Character And Nostalgia Of The 1940s

Logo of Muhlenberg College (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Muhlenberg to celebrate Broadway’s golden age with Bernstein, Comden and Green in splashy WWII musical, Oct. 26 – Nov. 4

Allentown, Pa. (Oct. 2, 2012) — When the classic 1944 musical ‘On the Town‘ opens Oct. 26 on the Muhlenberg College stage, director Charles Richter wants the audience to feel as though they have returned to the golden age of the show’s 1944 opening.

“The show is a time-honored classic that captures the young soaring spirit of the country during World War II,” Richter says. “It brings out the character and nostalgia of the 1940s.”

Richter will once again be working alongside musical director Ed Bara and choreographer Karen Dearborn on Leonard Bernstein’s rich score, a zingy, fast-paced book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and choreography inspired by Jerome Robbins.

The show runs two weekends — just eight performances on Muhlenberg’s Empie Stage. Tickets may be limited, especially for the Nov. 2-4 performances during the college’s Family Weekend.

The curtain rises in the Brooklyn Navy Yard at 6 a.m. on a summer morning during World War II. Three sailors—Chip, Ozzie and Gabey—begin their 24-hour shore leave, eager to explore the big city. Gabey falls in love with the picture of “Miss Turnstiles, June 1944,” who turns out to be Ivy Smith. With the help of anthropologist Claire DeLoone and amorous cabbie Hildy Esterhazy, the sailors race around New York attempting to find Ivy before their leave ends and they have to ship out.

‘On the Town’ began as a story line in choreographer Jerome Robbins’ ballet “Fancy Free,” for which Bernstein had provided the score. Hoping to further develop his idea, Robbins sought out collaboration with Comden and Green, and the three sailors out on the town, looking for excitement and romance, became the kernel of a full-length musical, a fusion of classical and modern dance combined with jazz and vernacular moves — a Broadway first.

“The show brings together a collaboration of ballet and jazz, which had never really been done before.” Richter says. “The piece isn’t just a dance show; dance drives it. That’s why this show makes you feel so good.”

The show features a cast of 40, including 16 seniors, many of whom have worked with Richter in the past.

“‘On the Town’ brings out the sentiments of love and the sting of saying goodbye,” says senior James Patefield, who plays Ozzie. “With five of the six principals as seniors, the cast is very aware of the message of this show — the idea of hope, not cynically or sarcastically, but hope we can believe in, especially with so little time left with the ones you love and care most about.”

“The show emphasizes that you should live in the moment. Be spontaneous. And most importantly, love the one you’re with,” said senior Jessie MacBeth, who plays Claire DeLoone opposite Patefield. “With such a collaborative cast and production team, this show really embodies the sense of unity and feel-good entertainment that Comden and Green were striving for.”

Muhlenberg College’s Theatre & Dance Department offers one of the top-rated college performance programs in the country, according to the Princeton Review rankings. Muhlenberg is a liberal arts college of more than 2,200 students in Allentown, Pa., offering Bachelor of Arts degrees in theater and dance.

“On the Town” runs Oct. 26 through Nov. 4 in the Empie Theatre, Baker Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown.

Performances are Friday and Saturday, Oct. 26-27, at 8 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 28, at 2 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, Nov. 1-2, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 3, at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 4, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $22 for adults, $8 for patrons 17 and under, and $8 for students, faculty and staff of all LVAIC colleges. For group of 15 or more, tickets are $16.

Tickets and information are available at (484) 664-3333 or www.muhlenberg.edu/theatre.

Lancaster Arts Community Throws Open Doors

Let there be light — or at least some darned good-looking lampshades — on North Queen Street.

Fans of the eye-popping, Art Nouveau glass shades that crowned traditional Tiffany lamps will find a treat waiting at the Art & Glassworks studio, 319 N. Queen St., during Lancaster ArtWalk Saturday and Sunday.

The self-guided tour of local arts venues, organized by the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, includes a featured stop to view the glass studio’s six or so polychromatic dragonfly, peony, poppy and tulip lamps.

Art & Glassworks owner Karin Meacham has been buying Tiffany lamp molds and bases from a California company, and she and her staff have created several vivid lamp mosaics of red, green, blue and yellow glass.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/745765_Art-community-throws-open-doors.html#ixzz2849eKQve

Television’s Fall Season Endures

For years, Alan Wurtzel, the head of research for NBC, has questioned the enduring validity of a television season — the ritual competition of network series, which begins again Monday night.

“I’ve been saying the idea of a television season is an anachronistic artifact,” Mr. Wurtzel said. “It’s a 52-week-a-year business. We never take a night off.”

The tradition of the fall season, originally tied to the start of the model year for new cars, is now more than 60 years old. It is defined arbitrarily and rather arcanely by the Nielsen Company as 34.5 weeks between mid-September and mid-May. The season doesn’t account for the increasing number of viewers who watch shows on their own schedules and it hasn’t stopped cable networks from introducing hit shows all through the year.

And yet, the idea persists, in large part because it still works. In defiance of diminishing ratings, attention on the new network shows seems only to have increased, as more blogs and social media sites offer breakdowns of the lineups and predictions of successes and failures.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/business/media/television-changes-but-the-fall-season-endures.html?_r=0