Arts News 4-26-24 - Heath Hillhouse

The Springfield Earth Day Festival is happening on Saturday, April 27th, with a plastic-free music lineup. Gigs in the Garden is a concert series at the Springfield Botanical Gardens, starting on May 5th. The Springfield Contemporary Theater is opening "The Other Place" on April 26th. MSU's Spring Dance Concert is running until Sunday, with tickets starting at $15. Joplin's arts org, Connect2Culture, is hosting a one-act version of "The Pirates of Penzance" on April 26th. The Branson Regional Arts Council will hold its Special Abilities Showcase on April 27th and 28th. The First Friday Art Walk in May will feature various exhibits and events. Arts Fest will take place on May 4th and 5th on Walnut Street. The Springfield Art Museum is hosting Art in Bloom, which runs until April 28th. The Moxie Cinema has upcoming screenings of "The Player," "Who This is Heath Hillhouse with the Arts News from April 26th, 2024. The Springfield Earth Day Festival will take place Saturday, April 27th. The annual event is a plastic-free, leave-no-trace music festival set to coincide with Earth Day, which was last Monday. Taking place at Jordan Valley Park, the lineup includes Langhorne Slim, Brandon Moore & Friends, Ha Ha Tonka, Rochara Knight and the Honey Doves, and five other bands. The festival starts at noon. Tickets are $50 to $75 for VIPs, and kids 12 and under get in for free. For more information, check out the Earth Day Festival's website. Gigs in the Garden is coming up. It's a series of concerts happening at the Springfield Botanical Gardens, 2400 South Scenic, sponsored by the Hatch Foundation and Springfield Sister Cities. They're all on Sundays at 2 p.m. The first one's on May 5th, featuring Eddie Guamoco, a singer-songwriter. KSMU listeners might know him as the host of Beneath the Surface on Wednesday nights on Ozark's Public Radio. May 12th will be Maddie Warren and Allie Butler, and the series will close on May 19th with the Republic Community Band. Admissions free, with a $10 suggested donation. For more information, check out the Sister Cities website. In theater news, Springfield Contemporary Theater opens The Other Place Friday night, April 26th. Thursday, director Karen Sabo and lead actor Sarah Wiggin, both MSU faculty, talked about the show. You can find the interview on the KSMU website. The show runs April 26th through 28th, May 2nd through the 5th, and May 9th through the 12th. Evening performances are at 7.30, with a 2.30 show on Sundays. Tickets are $32 for adults and $10 for children. For more information, see the Springfield Contemporary Theater's website. Also this weekend in Springfield Theater, MSU's Spring Dance Concert, Movement Mechanized, opened yesterday. It has pieces in a variety of styles, choreographed by both students and faculty, and runs through Sunday with performances in Cogar Theater at 7.30 p.m., except for Sunday when the show is at 2.30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. For more information, look at MSU's website. Friday night, April 26th at 7 p.m., Joplin's arts org, Connect2Culture, will host the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players performing a one-act version of the Pirates of Penzance. That's the classic comic opera from which the modern Major General song is derived. That'll be followed by a Best of Gilbert & Sullivan, including impromptu requests, if you want to hear something specific from, say, HMS Pinafore. Tickets start at $40. The show will take place at the Beshore Performance Hall in the Harry M. Cornell Arts Complex. More information at Connect2Culture.org. Saturday and Sunday, April 27th through the 28th, the Branson Regional Arts Council will hold their second annual Special Abilities Showcase. Each night will feature a different cast of folks with developmental disabilities showcasing their performance chops. The show is at 7 p.m. in the historic Owen Theater both nights, with a $5 donation collected at the door. More information at BransonArts.org. The first Friday Art Walk for the month of May is one week from now. There's a lot going on, but here are some highlights. Carl's Bad Designs will open their Fashion Showroom at 314 South Campbell Avenue. They'll be showcasing runway pieces in their very campy, lacy style, as well as local artwork, vintage clothes, and handmade jewelry. Bookmarks is hosting their 10-year anniversary Photographic Retrospective, exhibiting photos of the store and, perhaps most importantly, cats that live in the store, taken by staff and customers. Very important. Interior Design Firm, slash, retail store, slash, art gallery, Obelisk Home, will host the opening reception for Soft Spoken Sunlight by J.D. Hull, who does really vibrant, thick oil paintings, as well as the opening reception for a Karen Schneider Retrospective Exhibition. It will also be the last day to view Glendale Alumni Exhibition and bid in their 18th annual Birdhouse Auction. Arts Fest will be right after First Friday, the weekend of May 4th and 5th. Located on historic Walnut Street, it's got art, live entertainment, and food. Tickets are $5, and children under 5 get in free. A fundraising event, Art in Bloom, started Wednesday and continues through Sunday, April 28th, for the Springfield Art Museum. There are both floral and fashion designers displaying their interpretations of works of art, besides those works of art, with both jury prizes and People's Choice Awards given out. In addition to local vendors and activities for families, there will be an embroidery workshop Friday afternoon, April 26th, a basket weaving workshop Saturday, April 27th, and a floral design workshop on Sunday. These all cost money, and the museum encourages people to purchase tickets in advance. More information can be found at the Art Museum website. Currently running at the Art Museum is Ancient Artifacts Abroad, closing in mid-June, and Survey of Ceramic Art and Creating an American Identity, which close late June. Breath, Light, and Distance, Renaissance Works on Parchment and Paper, and the collection-focused exhibitions Brady Barth and Glenn a Good Acre, don't close until the museum closes long-term for renovations on September 2nd. As always, museum admission is free. Some special screenings are coming up at the Moxie Cinema soon. First Tuesday, April 30th, they'll screen The Player, Robert Altman's crime-thriller satire of Hollywood executives. It's the second part of this month's Two Tuesdays series. Last Tuesday's Two Tuesdays feature was Sunset Boulevard. On Wednesday, May 1st, they'll show Who Can See Forever, a concert film-documentary following indie folk icon Iron and Wine. Then on May 8th, the Moxie will show Being John Malkovich, the 90s surreal comedy classic with a script by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Spike Jones, and a performance by John Cusack, among others. Information on all these screenings are at the Moxie's website. In other film news, Sado 48 kickoff is Friday night, April 26th. The 48-hour film festival challenges teams to create a short film in, you guessed it, 48 hours, based on an inspiration package provided to each group. If you want more information, go to Sado48.com. I'm Heath Hillhouse, and that's the Arts News. Thanks for stopping by.