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Arts & Life
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County Poet Laureate Casey Carney will give a reading at the Mendocino College Lake Center on Sunday, Nov. 16.
The reading will begin at 2 p.m. at the center, 2565 Parallel Drive in Lakeport.
Admission is free to the event, which is presented by the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College and Friends of the Mendocino College Library.
Carney – Lake County's poet laureate for 2014 through 2016 – is a lifelong artist who expresses her creativity through poetry, writing, photography, performance art and teaching.
Holding a master’s degree in dance, Carney is a professional choreographer, and has taught dance and participated in numerous dance concerts in Los Angeles.
She has studied with such notables as Bessie Schonberg, Jeff Slaton, Bella Lewitzky, Risa Steinberg and Gloria Newman.
Carney also has performed as a soloist at the Los Angeles Dance Kaliedoscope Festival.
A former special education teacher, Carney currently is involved with mentoring at-risk youth.
She believes in the power of creativity in helping people to connect with their individual voice and to bring that voice into the world. She is interested in a multidisciplinary approach to expression and healing.
Carney is working on her manuscript of poetry titled “How to tell a Party from a Disaster.”
Following the reading, there will be an open mic session to let audience members recite their poetry.
Sign-ups will take place prior to the reading and during the break.
For more information call 707-468-3051.
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UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present “Eurydice,” Sarah Ruhl’s magical and beautiful adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
The play will run Nov. 7 to 16 in Mendocino College’s Center Theatre on the Ukiah Campus.
According to director Reid Edelman, “Ruhl has put her own highly imaginative spin on the classic myth drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, an ancient story which has lent itself to innumerable retellings. This is an enchanting play which will touch people’s hearts.”
Orpheus and Eurydice is the myth in which on the wedding day of the beautiful Eurydice, to the musician Orpheus, tragedy strikes.
Eurydice steps onto a pit of vipers, dies and is swept away to the underworld of Hades.
Orpheus’ grief overwhelms him; he travels to the underworld and plays music which melts the lord of the underworld’s heart.
Hades agrees that Orpheus can lead Eurydice back to the world of the living, but with one condition: Orpheus must promise not to look back at Eurydice until they reach the surface.
Orpheus, undone by his own doubts, looks back, losing his love forever.
The myth has been interpreted widely by poets, playwrights, psychologists, philosophers, musicians and filmmakers through the generations.
In the version of the story in production at Mendocino College, playwright Sarah Ruhl adds the character of Eurydice’s dead father (played by Jonathan Whipple), whom Eurydice (played by theater major Melany Katz) meets when she goes to the underworld.
“The play examines the nature of love, memory, and earthly connectedness,” said Edelman. “Ruhl wrote the play as a sort of love letter to her own deceased father, and it is brimming with humanity. The play celebrates the power of both poetry and music in connecting us to others. It is one of the most affecting plays that I have ever encountered.”
In this production, the musician Orpheus (played by Max Hovland) is a moody modern guitarist, and the Lord of The Underworld (played by DonMike Chilberg) is a child who grows and shrinks in the spirit of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Ruhl also adds the haunting character of the “Nasty Interesting Man” (played by theater major Thomas Kenney) and a “chorus of stones,” actors and dancers who comment on the action and torment Eurydice in the underworld.
The Stone Chorus features Scott Andrews, James Blake, Melissa Chapman, Ayla Decaire, Thomas Kenney, Marco Orozco, Maheanani Phillips and Megan Regan.
An evocative musical score by college recording arts instructor Rodney Grisanti and students in his Recording Arts classes will enhance the production.
There also will be original dance sequences choreographed by college dance instructor Eryn Schon-Brunner.
This play is appropriate for most audiences, though its themes of love, death, memory, language and music will be most appreciated by those ages 12 and older.
The production features a cast of 12 local performers, as well as impressive scenery and costumes created by students in Mendocino College’s theater, art and costuming classes under the direction of faculty members Kathy Dingman Katz, Gregory Byard, Lisa Rosenstreich and Theatre Technician Larry L. Lang.
Several members of the production are students in the college’s new Conservatory Cohort Group, a learning community of students engaging in a pre-professional conservatory-style training experience.
The play is being stage managed by Charlyn Keyser with the assistance of Alice Gully and Sarah Davis.
Eurydice opens on Friday, Nov. 7. Performances will run for two weekends only, through Nov. 16.
Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, and Saturday, Nov. 8; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 13; 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, and Saturday, Nov. 15; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16.
Tickets – $20 general, $15 students and seniors – are available at the Mendocino Book Co., at Mendocino College Bookstore and online at www.ArtsMendocino.org .
The performance on Thursday, Nov. 13, is a special discount night, with all tickets costing only $10.
Audiences are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance.
For more information, call 707-468-3172 or visit www.mendocino.edu/CVPA .
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A collection of more than 40 oil paintings from the estates of three well known Lake County artists will go up on the auction block at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at the Soper Reese Theatre.
Interested parties may preview the works beginning at noon.
The auction features the work of Jerome M. Seitz, Gerald Thompson and Samuil Marcu.
Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Lake County Arts Council.
Seitz was well traveled and spent extensive time in North Africa, the Middle East and much of Europe.
His experiences are evident in his impressionistic paintings reminiscent of Monet, Manet and Pissarro. It is as if his hand moves over the canvas automatically, filling the space with brilliance of color and balance of composition that only the best scenic artist can portray.
Thompson painted more than 100 portraits in categories ranging from actors and actresses, famous and historical figures, American Indians to animal life.
A few of these paintings and an album of his body of work is currently on view at the Main Street Gallery in Lakeport.
At the auction, buyers may select their desired painting from the album which can then be picked up at the gallery.
While Marcu spent some of his later years in Lake County, he lived a great part of his life in the Los Angeles area and frequented Venice Beach.
Many of his paintings are reflective of the beach life depicting people sunning on the sand.
Much of his work shows an Impressionist influence as well as his ability to simplify the human form while imparting a sense of space and emotion.
For more information on the artists, please contact Shelby Posada, executive director, Lake County Arts Council, at 707-263-1871.
For more information on the event, contact the Soper Reese Theatre Box Office, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com .
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Main Street Gallery invites you to join other art lovers to an exciting First Friday Fling reception on Nov. 7 from 5:30 to to 7 p.m.
The gallery will feature new work from three artists this month.
Patti Kubran will present her impressions of Lake County landscapes in photography. Carmen Brittain will offer a new show of humor in acrylics, while Richard Seisser, best known for his work in pastels, will present a full body of work in acrylics.
Continuing in the November show is the winner of the Kelseyville Pear Festival Poster Contest, Ruth Morgan, showing her whimsical three-dimensional and wall art and Richard Schmidt will display his wonderfully executed paintings of cowpokes framed in handcrafted barn wood along with landscapes.
Debbie Jorgenson delights the eye with her delicate work in pastels, while Marcie Long’s art provides a counterpoint in her large and colorful paintings in oil.
Also continuing in the October show are Judy Cardinale with beautifully executed landscapes and “critters,” Stephen Rotter with work in pastels, photography and sculpture, and Susan Johnson with paintings in pastels and watercolor.
Rounding out the show are the fine drawings and photography of Peter Shandera and the large abstract work of Shelby Posada in mixed media.
“Winter in Lake County” is November’s theme show in the Linda Carpenter Student Gallery.
Also on display will be a few pieces of art from the estates of Samuil Marcu, Jerome Seitz and Gerald Thompson to entice you to the upcoming auction to be held at the Soper Reese Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 16.
Meet the artists and enjoy the fine flavors of the wines from the Rosa d’ Oro Vineyards while enjoying the creative sounds of the talented Travis Rinker on guitar.
The Main Street Gallery is located at 325 N. Main St. in Lakeport.
For more information, call the gallery at 707-263-6658.
