Vicki Botta and Angelina Collins have teamed up to showcase their friendship and work together, combining landscapes from the Hudson Valley and northeast and photography pulled from Angelina Collin’s wide body of work.

The opening reception is 6 February, 2-4 pm at the Lycian Theater, the work will be on display through February.

The W.A.L. invites all artists to attend free weekly art sessions to paint, draw and more from your own set-up or photos on Tuesday mornings from 9:30a-12:30p beginning Tuesday, January 5^th, 2010, at the Greenwood Lake Public Library at 79 Waterstone Road, Greenwood Lake, New York.

Also, Warwick Art League is looking for you to become a member.  It’s only $25 a year, and $35 for a family membership.

For info, call W.A.L. member Sylvia Levy at (845) 544-3056 or visit their web site.

Gallery Warwick
17 River St
Warwick, NY

2 January, 6-9 p

Lakes Theatre Collective (LTC) recently presented a series of one-act plays at the Warwick Valley Community Center in Warwick, NY. Aptly entitled: “Absurdly Yours,” the short scripts provided a glimpse into the absurdities of our modern world and also supplied great comic relief from these self-same incongruities.

“You got something better to do in this cage?” one chimp asks another chimp in, Words Words, Words a one-act play by David Ives.

These chimps have been issued typewriters in the hopes that perhaps provided with enough time and, presumably, bananas, one of them might actually succeed in producing Shakespeare’s Hamlet. This proposition comes from an idea originally put forth by biologist, Julian Huxley in the 1800s, regarding his experiments with pure chance. As the talented actors performed this assumption onstage, embodying the thoughts and “words” of those self-same chimps, the Ives play produced itself a myriad of laughs.

The LTC cast also performed three other one-act plays: The Dancer That Had No Feet by J.L. Christa, Catastrophe, by S.L. Beckett and Victoria Station by H. Pinter.

In the latter play, Jonathan T. Cook as the controller in a London taxicab station and Josh Morris as the Driver were comic standouts. All of the actors involved in this production were quite up to par to the material and the scripts provided plenty of intellectual fuel for later discussion.

LTC is managed and directed by Jonathan Teague Cook and Cynthia Anderson-Cook and was formed to bring original and existing plays to the stage and to perform these works throughout Orange County. The plays are meant to be performed in theatres, health care facilities, schools, senior centers and managed health care facilities in an effort to bring entertainment and a forum for discussion to a wide audience.

“We started the collective in April this year. Our first productions were two one-act comedies; Sean O’Casey’s: A Bedtime Story and John Millington Synge’s: In The Shadow of the Glen. In 2010 we plan on presenting an original play; Donna Spector’s: Strip Talk on the Boulevard and we are planning to perform the two one-act Irish comedies again around St Patrick’s Day,” says Cook.

The not-for-profit company, LTC, is supported by Community 2000 in Warwick and inquiries about how-to-get involved in either hosting or performing in an upcoming performance can be made to jteacook@aol.com.

Bonus:  TLC started posting vidoes of their productions on Youtube.  Here is another of their plays from this series, The Dancer Who Had No Feet.  You can also subscribe the TLC’s future postings if you have a Google/Youtube account.

The editors here at Arts in Orange are happy to introduce you to Eileen Fanning Fisher.   A freelance writer and journalist who has written for the Times-Herald Record, Middletown, NY. and who was formerly employed by the Daily News in NYC, Eileen will be attending and reviewing events in Orange County and the Hudson Valley for you.

Eileen is also the author of a non-fiction book: Read for the Cure and won a 2009 NJ State Council on the Arts Prose Fellowship for a submission from her soon to be published novel: The Watercress Girl. She is also editor/publisher of The Thing Magazine; a local newsprint publication that featured area artists and writers and for which she was awarded two Puffin Grants. Her magazine was named after an Emily Dickinson poem: “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.”

Free dance lessons at 7.30p, concert at 8p

Cajun Sounds in the Hudson Valley

‘Bons Temp Roulez…Let the good times roll!,‘ as they say in Cajun country, Louisiana. Sugarloaf Music is proud to present, direct from New Orleans’ most famous music club, Tipitina’s, The Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, winner of the Big Easy Award for Best Cajun Group and Grammy nominee for two extraordinary ’fai do do’ dance-party concerts.

Coupled with Daigrepont’s appearance for two evenings at the Pavilion of the Lycian Performing Arts Center on Kings Highway in Sugarloaf,  Friday December 4^th and Saturday, December 5^th, attendees will get free dance lessons.  Lessons begin at 7:30 p.m. followed by a dance-concert at 8:00.  Tickets may be purchased at Village Music on Main Street in Warwick and Van Gelder Music, Route 17M in Monroe.  For more information and reservations, call (845) 258- JAZZ (5299).

On the heels of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Sugarloaf Music Series made a commitment to host at least one New Orleans-based artist in a series of concerts and educational workshops in the Hudson Valley and northern New Jersey. They selected the Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band. “Their appearance here was so well received by the community-at-large in 2005 and the  Warwick Valley School District, that, by popular demand, Sugarloaf Music in partnership will with Zatarain Foods wiill host their return to Warwick Middle School and Sanfordville School, both co-sponsored by their respective PTA‘s,” says Russ Layne, Executive Director of Sugarloaf Music.

Bruce Daigrepont was born in New Orleans.  His parents, from a rural Cajun farming community in Avoyelles Parish (County), Louisiana, moved to New Orleans shortly after World War II. Cajun French is their first language which is evinced in Daigrepont’s music—totally sung in French. “Gumbo and fricassee are almost always simmering on our stove,” explains the Cajun Music Hall of Fame artist. “We never get tired of those flavors.”

Bruce grew up in a family surrounded by music.  Every family gathering included singing and playing traditional Cajun music. His first instrument, at the age of five, was a guitar his father gave him. At the age of 20, after attending the annual Festival Acadians in Lafayette, Louisiana, he became inspired to play the accordion.  In less than two years, he had formed his own band, instituted Cajun music at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans and almost single-handedly popularized Cajun music, a genre exclusively heard in rural Cajun country.  In 1986, his weekly dance concerts became so popular, he was able to move his performances to New Orleans’ Tipitina’s.

Fast becoming one of Cajun music’s more popular ambassadors, he has been called upon to perform at Lincoln Center, the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Folk Festival. His most poignant annual appearances in the Canadian maritime provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick brings him back to his Acadian roots. The Acadians, of French ancestry, were expelled from Canada back in the mid-1700s.

Daigrepont has made several well-received recordings for the Rounder Recording Company.  His infectious, contemporary music “…is pure joi de vivre,” says Layne. “In less than 30 minutes, one can learn to dance Cajun and even zydeco and get a full aerobic workout.”

This concert is sponsored in part by support from New York State Council on the Arts, Zatarain’s Foods, Orange & Rockland Utilities, Target, and The Puffin Foundation.

Hemlocks

–Donna Reis

21 November 2009 4 pm – ?

Baby Grand Books
7 West St
Warwick, NY

21 November, 8 pm

Lycian Centre for the Performing Arts
CR-13/Kings Highway
Sugar Loaf, NY

Warwick Community Center
11 Hamilton Ave
Warwick, NY

For more information and to purchase tickets, cal the Lakes Theater Collective at 845.595.1172

• Sculpture
• Watercolor
• Acrylic
• Sketching
• Life Drawing

Also other artists who have a unique art class they could/would like to teach.

Please contact Susan at Pcasso Art 845.544.7017 or  Pcasso7west@gmail.net

The goal of this design oriented class is to establish a whole new set of parameters to use when selecting a frame. Using samples of mat board and frame moulding, what do different combinations say to the viewer; and is that what you really wanted to say? Getting beyond the obvious of just matching and using inherent qualities that truly complement and present your work. What it takes to succeed using ready-mades and doing it yourself. How to develop a relationship with a custom framer. When it makes sense to DIY and when you should call in the professional.

Eric Jarmann, an Orange County native, has background in photography, graphic design, lighting, and carpentry. Since 1997, he has owned a gallery and picture framing shop in Newburgh. The gallery featured local interest and affordable art. A monthly meeting called “2nd Mondays” was a networking opportunity for artists and creative professionals. Now exclusively framing, Eric is studying the traditional methods of gold leaf and French matting.

$15 or free for artist and organization members of the council.

Tues, October 20, 7-9pm

Arts Council office, 23 White Oak Drive, Sugar Loaf