Art: See the culmination of years of study in the art work of four Masters of Fine Art students in Thesis Exhibition 2013 at the Schmidt Center Gallery at Florida Atlantic University. The exhibition, which runs through May 24, showcases the large, charcoal drawings of Jill Lavetsky, the abstract paintings and drawings of Eduardo Rosas and the functional pottery of Alexandra Schwartz. Graphic designer Brittany Schade has art pieces on display as well, including Last Regrets, a wall installation of medical folders containing the final regrets of hospice patients. The Schmidt Center Gallery is open Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.fau.edu/galleries.
Film: If Identity Thief were not already taken, that would be an apt name for the new Colin Firth-Emily Blunt movie, prosaically titled Arthur Newman. That is Firth’s character, or more precisely, that is the identity he assumes when he stages his own death. He aims to leave his dreary Florida life as a Federal Express middle manager behind and pursue an offer to become a golf pro at a country club in Indiana. But along the way in his road trip, he encounters a young druggie (Blunt) who also has re-invented herself with a false identity. They make an odd couple indeed, as the film veers towards romance, but has a few more unexpected turns along the highway. Now playing at area theaters.
Theater: Eat your hearts out, snow birds. Outside of the usual Broadway series season, Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center brings to the region our first look at the Tony Award-winning stage production of War Horse, birthed at Britain’s National Theatre with the priceless assistance of life-sized puppets created by the Handspring Theatre Company of South Africa. If you have only seen the Steven Spielberg film, do not make the mistake of thinking you have seen the wonderment that this show contains. This tale, based on a children’s book, follows a horse named Joey as he is drafted into the British army during World War I and learns first-hoof the horrors of war. The story is OK, but believe me, you will soon forget that there are puppets onstage and become emotionally invested in these horses. Tuesday, May 7 through Sunday, May 19. Call (954) 462-0222 for tickets.
Music: The South Florida Symphony’s chamber music series featuring the Blue Door String Quartet continues Sunday night in Fort Lauderdale and Wednesday night in Key West. The quartet — violinists Whitney LaGrange and Benjamin Breen, violist Valentina Shohdy and cellist and quartet founder Arthur Cook — performs the Haydn Quartet No. 61 (Quinten, Op. 76, No. 2, in D minor), Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 1 (in E-flat, Op. 12), and the Lullaby of George Gershwin. The group plays at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Josephine Leiser Opera Center in downtown Fort Lauderdale (and at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Tennessee Williams Cabaret Theatre in Key West); tickets are $25-$35. Call 305-295-7676 or visit www.southfloridasymphony.org.