A photo taken in Jackson, Mont.,from Alan Winslow and Morrigan McCarthy’s Project Tandem.
Art: Two photographers – Alan Winslow and Morrigan McCarthy – traveled 11,000 miles by bicycle across the United States beginning in 2008 to gather opinions about the environment, get to know their fellow Americans, and, of course, take pictures of them.
They put together a show of this work (Project Tandem) that’s now touring the country,and through June 18, their impressions can be seen at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre (as well as on the Project Tandem Website. On the site, McCarthy can be heard talking a little more about the intent of the effort, which takes into account the way technology has shrunk the globe, but not necessarily increased understanding.
This is an earnest, well-crafted effort, judging by the photos on the site, and it’s the kind of thing that’s always heartening to see: Artists, engaged in the work and the message, redeeming the days in order to track it down. Hours at the Photo Centre (415 Clematis St., West Palm) are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 253-2600 or visit www.workshop.org or www.fotofusion.org for more information.
Peter Stormare in Small Town Murder Songs.Film: Full of atmosphere and texture, the low-budget Canadian drama Small Town Murder Songs is set in an Ontario Mennonite farming community where police chief Peter Stormare tries to keep the peace. But he has a history of violence, which surfaces again when the dead body of a young girl is found by a lake. Stormare’s investigation is tainted by his own motives, as he tries to incriminate a white-trash loner that no one would miss. Director-writer Ed Gass-Donnelly unfolds his tale with wily care, placing the focus more on character development than plot turns. He also has a good touch with actors, including prominent support from Martha Plimpton and the police chief’s girlfriend. Opening today at Mos’Art Theatre in Lake Park and Living Room Theatres in Boca Raton.
Eric Mendenhall and Elizabeth Birkenmeierin The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider.
Theater: This is the final weekend for Florida Stage’s stunning close to its first season at the Kravis Center, the enigmatically titled The Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider by one of the company’s most frequently produced writers, Carter W. Lewis. Only Lewis would think to construct a play out of his anger over our country’s increasing reliance on private mercenary armies and his new-found fascination with slam poetry. The play begins with a mother and daughter breaking into the offices of a Blackwater-like corporation to find out more about the death of their husband/father from “friendly fire.” It goes to a surreal spot that is intentionally open-ended and up for interpretation. Lou Tyrrell directs a terrific cast headed by Antonio Amadeo as a Muslim cab driver who might already be dead and Elizabeth Birkenmeier as a recent college grad who majored in spoken word poetry, a not very lucrative field that manages to come in handy. Through Sunday at the Kravis Center’s Rinker Playhouse in West Palm Beach. Call (561) 585-3433 for reservations.
Patrick Clifford.Music: Although the level of arts activity drops off after season, fans of chamber music find that the hot months offer a couple back-to-back series.
The first one begins next Tuesday with the four-part Stringendo School for Strings faculty concerts on the campus of Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach. The brainchild of PBAU violin professor Patrick Clifford and his wife Belen, the Stringendo School has for more than a decade provided a four-week intensive summer camp for violinists, violists, and cellists.
As in past years, Stringendo is able to bring aboard accomplished players from major and regional orchestras to supplement the in-house team; visiting faculty this year include players from the Atlanta and Cleveland orchestras as well as the Naples Philharmonic. Tuesday night, the faculty concert features two fine players from the New England Conservatory: Violinist James Buswell and cellist Carol Ou. Buswell will play the Partita No. 2 in D minor of J.S. Bach and Ou will follow with the Suite No. 6 for solo cello, after which the husband-and-wife team will join for the Double Chaconne of American composer Richard Toensing.
All four concerts – which will include Schubert’s Trout Quintet as well as the Brahms First Piano Quartet and the Piano Quintet – begin at 7 p.m. on successive Tuesdays starting June 7. Tickets are $15. Call 803-2970 or send an e-mail to ticketcentral@pba.edu.
Gustavo Dudamel.The Los Angeles Philharmonic, following in the steps of the Metropolitan Opera’s runaway HD simulcast success, offers a live concert in movie theaters Sunday afternoon across the country.
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel will lead the orchestra in an all-Brahms afternoon, beginning with the Double Concerto (in A minor, Op. 102), with violinist Renaud Capucon and cellist brother Gautier as soloists, and ending with the Fourth Symphony (in E minor, Op. 98). It’s the third and final concert the Angelenos have presented in NCM Fathom theaters (the other two were in January and March), which include Regal, AMC and Cinemark houses.
Reception of the concerts has been good and getting better, according to officials from the orchestra and from NCM Fathom, and part of that is surely because of Dudamel, a Venezuelan who is widely seen as just what the world of orchestral conducting needed at this time. The simulcast, broadcast live from the futuristic Disney Concert Hall (designed by Frank Gehry), begins at 5 p.m. and is hosted by John Lithgow.
The concert can be seen at Delray Beach 18; Cinemark Palace 20 and Shadowood 16 in Boca Raton; Royal Palm Stadium 18 in Royal Palm Beach; Jupiter 18 Cinemas in Jupiter; Downtown at the Gardens Cinema 16 in Palm Beach Gardens; and Port St. Lucie 14 in Port St. Lucie. Depending on the theater, tickets range from $12 to $20, with occasional discounts for students and seniors.
Jeanne Tarrant.Meanwhile, flutist Jeanne Tarrant joins with pianist Fedora Horowitz for a Sunday afternoon of music at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach.
Tarrant, a Florida Philharmonic veteran who now plays with the Boca Raton Symphonia, is a fine player with several well-received recordings to her credit; her virtually all-French program Sunday includes the Poulenc Flute Sonata and a sonatina by Henri Dutilleux, pieces by Faure, Debussy, Bizet, Saint-Saens and the once-familiar Benjamin Godard.
She also plans to play the Cantabile and Presto by the Romanian composer George Enescu, who lived much of his life in France, and was buried in Paris upon his death in 1955. Horowitz, a graduate of the National Conservatory in the Romanian capital of Bucharest, will play a movement from Enescu’s Second Suite (in D, Op. 10).
Tickets are $15-$18 for the 4 p.m. concert. Call 278-6003 for more information.