Celebrating 25 years of music-making, the Atlantic Classical Orchestra, a fine, chamber-sized orchestra of 41 players, came to the Eissey Campus Theatre of Palm Beach Gardens State College from its Fort Pierce headquarters Tuesday to give the first of its four concerts scheduled there. The orchestra’s stated mission is to broaden its outreach, and by using an all purpose name … [Read more...]
PB Jewish Film Festival screens at multiple venues in 25th year
For its 25th anniversary, The Donald M. Ephraim Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival is hitting the road. Don’t worry; it remains within Palm Beach County, but each week it will move to a different location, giving local residents the opportunity to see nearly every one of the 31 major Jewish-themed films in their own neighborhood. Following the opening night film, Above and … [Read more...]
N.Y. artists cook up puppet magic for Maltz’s ‘The Wiz’
In lower Manhattan, in the unassuming former kitchen of the Lower Eastside Girls’ Club, a trio of cut-ups are making theater magic. Even more improbable than running away to join the circus, six years ago Emily DeCola, Michael Schupbach and Eric Wright formed a collective — The Puppet Kitchen — to design, build and operate puppets for plays, operas, cruise ship shows and … [Read more...]
At Four Arts: Wild about more than just Henri
When a time is no longer being captured, but simply being copied, that is the signal for someone to grab it and portray it like nobody else. A group of rebel artists living in Paris heard that call in 1880. A new wind of creativity stormed the bohemian city for the next 30 years, stripping its walls of anything resembling old academic practices in order to hang fresh artistic … [Read more...]
Health care too focused on repair, not happiness, physician says
Modern medicine excels at treating illness while it mostly sidesteps patients’ end-of-life fears and hopes, which is the theme of Being Mortal, a thoughtful new book by Harvard University surgeon and author Atul Gawande. “I learned a lot of things in medical school, but mortality wasn’t one of them,” Gawande writes. “Our textbooks had almost nothing on aging or frailty or … [Read more...]
Ancient Egypt comes alive in all-season Science Center exhibit
Ramses the Great, who ruled ancient Egypt for 66 years during Egypt’s 19th Dynasty, is said to have sired more than 96 sons and 60 daughters during his lifetime. One of his sons, now known as the Ramesside mummy, is on display through next spring at the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium as part of its new exhibit, Afterlife: Tombs and Treasures of Ancient Egypt. “The … [Read more...]
‘Laggies’: Pining for maturity paints predictable picture
Megan Burch, Keira Knightley’s protagonist in Laggies, is a 28-year-old with privileged problems. It’s been 10 years since Burch graduated high school, but she’s still stuck in the same emotional place — unmarried, with the same steady boyfriend, upper-middle-class parents and a menial job flipping signs for her father’s accounting firm (a provincial job, though it must be said … [Read more...]
New opera company triumphs with ‘Bluebeard’
All Hallow’s Eve gave birth to a new opera company for South Florida. Oct. 31 saw the launch of Opera Fusion at Lake Worth Playhouse in a well- presented, well-sung mounting of Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. The group’s mission is to get opera to the people; it’s an artist-driven startup offering a new approach. Less stodgy, as proven by the very young audience who came … [Read more...]
‘Love Is Strange’: An exquisite, realistic couple story
There are no opening credits in Ira Sachs’ new film, Love Is Strange; we just get to it. An older man who we quickly recognize as John Lithgow wakes up in the morning, crawls out of bed, takes a dutiful, glum shower, and begins what seems like an ordinary day. He can’t find his glasses, which bothers him greatly, and by the reaction of his partner, played by Alfred Molina, … [Read more...]
A beautiful visitation for Boca Ballet’s ‘Swan Lake’
It’s too easy to compare the appearance of a major ballerina with a local company to the visitation of a swan, especially when the ballet in question is that of Tchaikovsky. And it also minimizes the contribution of the company itself, which in the case of Boca Ballet Theatre would be distinctly unfair. But this past Saturday night’s mounting of Swan Lake with New York City … [Read more...]