Stephanie C. Stowe, a faculty member in Lehman College’s Department of Journalism, Communication, and Theatre, will direct a new production of Adly Guirgis’s Our Lady of 121st Street. Performances will take place in the Studio Theatre beginning on Wed., Dec. 3, at 3:30 pm and continue through Dec. 7, on Thurs., Fri., and Sat. at 8 pm and on Sun. at 3 pm.
The play opens in the Ortiz Funeral Room, where the body of beloved community activist and nun Sister Rose has been stolen from the viewing room. Attending the funeral are several members of the community who are there to find a place to put their grief, checkered pasts, and uncertain futures.
The cast includes Lehman students and community residents.
Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for seniors and non-Lehman students (free admission for Lehman students with Valid I.D.) For more information or to make reservations, call (718) 960-8025, or visit www.lehmanstages.org.
* * *
The Riverdale-Yonkers Society fir Ethical Culture invites area residents to attend its annual Family Thanksgiving Gathering on Sun., Nov. 30 at 11 am at the Society Meeting House, located at 4450 Fieldston Road, corner of Manhattan College Parkway.
Bring canned food for the food pantry. The pantry supports homeless, underemployed and employed families in the Riverdale area. The program will be followed by a potluck luncheon.
For more information call (718) 548-4445.
* * *
The Bronx River Art Center, located at 1087 East Tremont Avenue, presents its 2008 Student Exhibition and Benefit Sale, opening with a Holiday Party on Dec. 12, from 4 to 7 pm. The event will feature presentations of awards and certificates, screenings of student films, refreshments, games and activities for all ages in an ode to a Winter Wonderland.
BRAC offers unique opportunities for students to interact with highly-skilled professional artists in a focused educational setting.
Call (718) 589-5819 for more information.
* * *
The Bruce Museum announces that it has acquired a pastel at auction by the great nineteenth-century portraitist and painter of modern life James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902). The new acquisition, Admiring a Portfolio (ca. 1883), measuring 23 1/2 x 29 inches, depicts a woman pausing in thoughtful contemplation while studying a portfolio of drawings and prints. She holds a pair of glasses in her hand. Wearing fashionable black gloves and a black-collared white blouse, hair swept up stylishly, she leans forward, staring off dreamily in space.
Admiring a Portfolio, which is currently on view at the museum’s admissions desk through Sun., Dec. 7, and will be on view again in early 2009, illustrates Tissot’s sophisticated command of light and shadow and subtle use of color.
The museum is located at 1 Museum Drive in Greenwich, CT. For information call (203) 869-0376.
* * *
The Bronx Arts Ensemble opens the holiday season with its St. Nicholas Day Celebration on Sat., Dec. 6 at 1 and 3 pm at Philipse Manor Hall at 29 Warburton Avenue at Dock Street, in Yonkers and Sat., Dec. 13 and Sun., Dec. 14 at noon and 2 pm at the Bartow-Pell Mansion on Shore Road, Pelham Bay Park, near the Split Rock Golf Course.
The St. Nicholas Celebration describes in song and storytelling the arrival of the Dutch sinterklass, who brings candies and fruits to good children of colonial New Amsterdam, and lumps of coal to those who have misbehaved. Following the program, which includes many old Dutch carols, the audience will join with the group in singing holiday songs.
Free tickets are available by calling the BAE at (718) 601-7399. Orders are limited to five tickets per person, as seating is limited.
* * *
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts presents the return, by popular demand, of an American musical treasure -– multi-GRAMMY Award-winning singer, guitarist and composer José Feliciano, performing a special holiday concert of his hits in English and Spanish on Sat., Dec. 13, at 8 pm.
Feliciano was born blind to humble beginnings
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts is on the campus of Lehman College at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West. Tickets are: $45, $35, $25 and $20 and can be purchased by calling the Lehman Center box office at (718) 960-8833.
* * *
The Lehman College and Community Chorus will present its annual free Winter Concert on Sun., Dec. 7, at 2:30 pm in the Lehman College Performing Arts Center. Complimentary tickets will be available at the Box Office beginning at 1 pm on the day of the performance.
The major work on the program will be Handel’s Messiah part two and the final movements of part three. Directed by Lehman Professor Diana Mittler-Battipaglia and accompanied by the Lehman Symphony Orchestra, the 150-member chorus will also perform shorter multicultural works.
In addition, the program will feature works for violin and orchestra by Tchaikovsky, a polka by Johann Strauss, as well as songs the audience can sing along to.
A Lehman is located on Goulden Avenue and Bedford Park Boulevard West.
For more information call (718) 960-8247.
* * *
Studio 889 is hosting a Holiday Print Show in Hunts Point starting on Sat., Dec. 6 with an opening reception from 2:30 to 5:30 pm. Studio 889’s artists invite the community to celebrate the season by sharing the gift of art in the south Bronx.
Occupying a 500 square foot storefront on Hunts Point Avenue, Studio 889 is in the vanguard of the burgeoning south Bronx arts revival.
The Holiday Show is an exhibition of hand-pulled prints by urban printmakers. The show runs through Sat., Jan. 10 at 889 Hunts Point Avenue.
* * *
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, in association with RC Entertainment and V.AI. Entertainment, presents the not-to-be-missed 30th anniversary concert by one of Latin music’s most popular bands, the Latin Grammy-nominated Ray Castro’s Conjunto Clasico, on Sat., Nov. 29, at 8 pm. The orchestra was founded in the late ‘70s by Castro and vocalist/composer Ramon Rodriguez. Celebrated around the world for preserving its Puerto Rican and Afro Cuban roots, Conjunto Clasico has sold over ten million albums over their illustrious 30 years in the music business. The orchestra also features vocalists Hector Luis Pagan, David Navedo and Ramon Rodriguez. Johnny Rivera and invited guest vocalists Tito Allen and Rafael De Jesus will perform their many hit with the band for the first time in 20 years. Invited guests is Johnny Pacheco Y Su Tumbao.
Lehman Center is on the campus of Lehman College at 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West. Tickets are $60, $55 and $45 and can be purchased by calling (718) 960-8833.
