Bits And Pieces 05.31.12
Afro-Samba Music
The Montauk Library will present “Black Orphe and Eurydice,” with the Women of Color Productions Ensemble, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
The play, with Afro-Samba music and dance, was written, directed, and choreographed by Jacqueline Wade, who has written more than 20 plays and performance art pieces, performed at such venues as La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, New York University, and the Harlem School of the Arts. It was inspired by ancient Greek legends and classical literature and art about the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as the 1959 film “Black Orpheus.”
The cast includes Abraham Amkpa, Courtney Shaday, Robert Shryock, Michael Velez, and Jaqueline Revere.
‘Li’l Abner’ at LTV
The Studio Playhouse community theater at LTV will present “Li’l Abner” next Thursday through Saturday at 7 p.m. in LTV’s studio 3. In its original run on Broadway the musical comedy, based on the cartoon characters created by Al Capp, ran for almost 700 performances.
Li’l Abner and Daisy Mae will be played by Bryant Yunker and Stephanie Grady, with musical accompaniment by Mark York. Some 15 of the area’s amateur actors will take the stage as well. Tickets are $15 and $10 for students and those over 65, and can be purchased at ltveh.org.
Giovanni
“Giovanni the Fearless,” a folk opera with music by Mira J. Spektor and Carolyn Balducci of Montauk, will be presented at Symphony Space in Manhattan next Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
The opera was presented as readings at the Montauk Library last year. It will be part of a bill including “I Wish, I Wish, I Wish,” another folk opera, and a musical piece called “As I Walked Out One Evening.”
Tickets are $30, or $20 for children and groups, and can be purchased through symphonyspace.org.
Parrish Films
The Parrish Museum has two film presentations coming up. The first, on Sunday, is a recorded broadcast of the Verdi opera “I Vespri Siciliani” (“The Sicilian Vespers”), to be shown at 2 p.m.
The opera takes its name from the Easter rebellion of the Sicilians in 1282 against the French-Capetian king Charles I, who had ruled the island since 1266. It weaves military intrigue with a tale of doomed love between a French duchess and a Sicilian rebel. The cast includes Maria Agresti, Gregory Kunde, and Franco Vassallo, with Gianandrea Noseda at the podium.
Next Thursday, “Chris & Don: A Love Story,” a documentary about the relationship between the British author Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, an American portrait painter, will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Mr. Isherwood, best known for “The Berlin Stories” (which became the basis for the musical “Cabaret”), met Mr. Bachardy in Malibu in the 1950s, and they remained together until the author’s death in 1986.
The 90-minute film is presented in conjunction with the museum’s current exhibition, “EST-3: Southern California in New York.”
Tickets to the opera screening, a four-hour program that includes two intermissions, are $17, or $14 for members. The documentary is $7, $5 for members.