Weekend arts picks: Oct. 23-25

[This entry has been updated to correct a factual error.] This weekend, the south end of Palm Beach County has what you need for your art fix. Opening Friday night at the Urs Art Studio Gallery in Boynton Beach is an exhibit featuring eight artists: George Cheskes, Portland Jastram, Vera Rekstad, Naomie St. Amand, Maxine and Herman Schreiber, Stella White and Suzette Urs. Maxine Schreiber’s tropical landscapes are oils on canvas, while her late father, Herman, created highly detailed pastels. White’s abstract painted collages recall earthy and ancient times. Artwork includes glass mosaics, pen and ink drawings and airbrush paintings. The gallery is at 802 N. Federal Highway in Boynton Beach. Today’s reception is from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. For more information, call (561) 734-6926.

This weekend is the last full one in which to see work by the winners of the 2009 South Florida Cultural Consortium Media and Visual Arts Fellowships. The exhibit at Florida Atlantic University’s Boca Raton campus ends Oct. 31. Admission is free; the Schmidt and Ritter art gallery hours are 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Call 297-2966 or visit www.fau.edu/galleries.

And at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach are exhibits of tetsubin — cast-iron teakettles from the 19th and 20th centuries — and Japanese woodblock prints with moon and plum blossom motifs. These exhibits run though Dec. 6. Hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults, $11 for seniors 65 years and older, $7 for children and college students with identification. The Morikami is located at 4000 Morikami Park Road in Delray Beach, Florida. For more information, visit www.morikami.org or call (561) 495-0233. –– K. Deits

Film: Personally, I tend to skip the early sections of a biography, which talks about the formative years of the subject before he or she established himself in his field. But that is exactly the focus of an entrancing new film, Coco Before Chanel, which shows us the beginnings of the woman who would revolutionize women’s fashions with simple lines and a lack of feathers and frills. The movie is visually impressive and period perfect, but what makes it so compelling is the title performance of Audrey Tautou (Amelie), who grows more and more like another cinematic Audrey — Hepburn — all the time. Opening today at area theaters. — H. Erstein

Theater: Joseph Adler has already directed three of Neil LaBute’s ill-mannered plays of the gulf between men and women at his GableStage in Coral Gables, so it was no surprise that he was itching to get his hands on reasons to be pretty, LaBute’s Tony Award-nominated Broadway debut from last season. It begins with a white-hot verbal battle between lovers breaking up over a rumor of an overheard slight about the woman’s looks, and it rarely lets up for two hours of escalating misunderstandings. Adler gathers some first-rate actors, including Todd Allen Durkin, Erin Joy Schmidt and Amy Elane Anderson. (Hmm, wonder what it is about all these three-named actors?) The production opens Saturday evening and continues through Nov. 22. For tickets, call (305) 445-1119. — H. Erstein

Music: The Lynn Philharmonia, the student orchestra at the Lynn University conservatory, draws large crowds to its concerts each season, and this weekend the group is starting off with a challenging program that should put it to the test. Conductor Albert-George Schram has chosen two major 20th-century works: the Fifth Symphony (in B-flat, Op. 100) of Sergei Prokofiev and the Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16, of Arnold Schoenberg (in its 1949 chamber-orchestra version). “Both the Prokofiev Fifth Symphony and Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra are pinnacles of the symphonic art,” Schram wrote in an e-mail. “It is good for our musicians and audience to be exposed to and explore this historically significant music.” The orchestra also plans the Symphony No. 38 (in D, K. 504, Prague) of Mozart. The concerts are set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at the Roberts Theatre on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in western Boca Raton. Call 237-9000 or visit www.lynn.edu/tickets.

Meanwhile, the New World Symphony joins forces this weekend with the Master Chorale of South Florida for two performances of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony (in D minor, Op. 125, Choral), along with selections from Beethoven’s lone opera, Fidelio. Soloists are soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo Kendall Gladen, tenor Anthony Dean Griffey and bass Luca Pisaroni. Michael Tilson Thomas conducts. 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Knight Concert Hall of the Arsht Center in downtown Miami. Tickets: $10-$123; call 305-673-3331 or visit www.nws.edu. — G. Stepanich