Theater: What, you still haven’t seen Karen Stephens in the one-woman multiple-character tour de force Bridge & Tunnel? The show, built around the denizens of an urban poetry slam café, allows the West Palm Beach actress the opportunity to flex her performance muscles and demonstrate her chameleon-like abilities. The show brought her a Carbonell Award nomination earlier this year, and now Bob Carter is showcasing her at his Actor’s Workshop & Repertory Co., 1009 M. Dixie Highway, in West Palm. It s scheduled to run for a month, from today through to Sunday, Oct. 30, but chances are Stephens will come to your house and perform the show if that’s more convenient. Call (561) 301-2588 for tickets.
Film: Yes, we have a handful of film festivals in Palm Beach County, too many according to some people, but none of them concentrates on South Florida filmmakers exclusively. Until now. That is the mission of the L-Dub Film Festival — as in “Lake Worth,” get it? — a home-grown, low-key event happening this weekend, Friday through Sunday, at the Lake Worth Playhouse’s Stonzek Theatre on Lake Avenue. The numbers are these: Four documentaries, three feature films, 34 shorts and eight music videos. You want Hollywood stars, too? Settle for actor Garrett M. Brown, who will be present to promote his film Hard to Come By, which was at least edited in Lake Worth. For the complete schedule, call (561) 586-6169.
Art: The Norton Museum of Art, which has been closed for the last half of September to reinstall its galleries, reopens at 10 a.m. Saturday. The lobby’s been redesigned, the European and American collections have been rethought, and there will be a series of gallery talks Saturday afternoon by curators Jerry Dobrick, Glenn Tomlinson and Laurie Barnes. Palm Beach County residents get in free on the first Saturday of each month, and this is a perfect way to embrace the culture that’s yours for the asking by taking some time to stop by. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 832-5196 or visit www.norton.org. (Regular admission is $12 for adults, $5 for students.)
Music: The season really gets rolling this weekend, with one of the signature events, Festival Miami, getting under way with appearances by Gunther Schuller (last seen here at Lynn’s New Music Festival last season) and rising American pianist Claire Huangci, who plays the Boca Symphonia this coming April. But if going down to Coral Gables isn’t in the plan, there’s a lot to do right here.
The Lynn Philharmonia, which sounded strong in its preview weekend with music by Brahms, Copland and Tchaikovsky (with a fine performance by violinist Sylvia Kim), opens its regular season Saturday night and Sunday afternoon with Mahler’s First Symphony and the last symphony of Mozart (the Jupiter, No. 41 in C, K. 551). Conductor Albert-George Schram will lead his student troops at 7:30 p.m. Sunday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Wold Performing Arts Center on the campus of Lynn University in Boca Raton. Tickets: $35-$50. Call 237-9000 or visit www.lynn.edu/tickets.
Also Saturday afternoon, Kenneth Martinson’s South Florida Chamber Players offer the second concert of their debut season with the Quartet No. 13 of Dmitri Shostakovich (in B-flat minor, Op. 138), the Italian Serenade of Hugo Wolf, and the Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, of Beethoven, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boca Raton. The group repeats the concert at 7 p.m. Monday at the Sunshine Cathedral of Fort Lauderdale, and at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Miami Beach Community Church. Tickets: $20-$35. Call 954-990-0816 or visit www.southfloridachamberplayers.com.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaMV_xsCCuE ]Editor’s note: The South Florida Chamber Players concerts for October were canceled for reasons of illness. The November concerts will continue as scheduled Nov. 13-15.
And you can compare your Beethoven Op. 132 performances the very next evening, when the South Florida Symphony Quartet performs the same quartet as part of the opening season weekend at Delray Beach’s Arts Garage. The concert is set for 6 p.m. in the Garage at 180 N.E. 1st St. Tickets: $25-$35. Visit http://artsgarage.eventbrite.com/.