Around Town

Improbable Players Receive $200,000 Grant from Cummings Foundation

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The following information was provided by Improbably Players:
Improbable Players Inc. is one of 33 local nonprofits awarded a total of $10 million from Cummings Foundation through its new Sustaining Grants program, which provides funding for up to 10 years. Christina Everett, Co-Director (Program Management) and Shahjehan Khan, Development Co-ordinator, represented the nonprofit at a May 3 awards night at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn. Watertown-based Improbable Players use theater performances & workshops based on true stories and performed by people in recovery to address addiction, alcoholism, and the opioid epidemic. Performances are 25-45 minutes long followed by a talkback/Q&A. Drama workshops give students the space and tools to combat social pressures and find coping strategies that work for them.

Entertainment

Natures Interfaces With Art in Watertown Gallery’s New Exhibit

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Room 83 Spring sent out the following information about its upcoming exhibit:

Art and the ecosystem convene in Dynamic Entities at Room 83 Spring featuring the work of David Buckley Borden, Rebecca Hutchinson, and Joel Longenecker. Sculpture, painting and works on paper, reveal art as the interface between nature’s cycles and processes and the parallel actions, proposals, and outcomes of each artist’s investigative studio practice. Through mimesis, simulation, evidential re-presentation, and collaborative interpretation, Buckley Borden, Hutchinson, and Longenecker give testament to a complex community of interwoven physical factors and the ever-unfolding contingencies of nature itself. As a witness and participant, each artist explores themes of flux, flow, growth and decay, creation and its demise, to render an intimate experience of awe and the sublime. A Cambridge-based interdisciplinary artist and designer, David Buckley Borden promotes a shared environmental awareness and heightened cultural value of ecology.

Around Town

Local Author’s Book Goes Back in Time to See What Watertown Square Looked Like

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Watertown Square may have changed significantly over the past decade, but local author Cara Marcus found out how the area near the Charles River truly transformed from an industrial center centuries ago to the commercial downtown, while researching her book Watertown Square Through Time. The heart of Watertown Square, the grassy Delta, once was the site of a grist mill where farmers brought their grain to be ground. Where a parking lot for the MBTA sits on Galen Street used to be a soap factory in the later 1800s. The book goes back to the 1630s, Marcus said. She also stated she was most surprised by how industrial the area used to be was centuries ago.

Arts

Watertown Resident Directing Local Production of Tony Winning Rock Opera

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Watertown’s Joy Lamberton-Arcolano will direct The Longwood Players’ production of the Pulitzer and Tony award winning rock opera Next to Normal. 
Longwood provided the following information about the production:
Longwood strives to share theatre that is artistically interesting, intellectually stimulating and socially compelling.  We want you to leave the theatre full of questions and conversation. Next to Normal is an ideal vehicle for these guiding principles as we get to peek inside the life of Pinterest obsessed DIYer Diana, a “normal” suburban housewife with bipolar disorder “trying to keep the plates all spinning”.  We are immersed in her interactions with her architect husband Dan, who believes he can build his family to perfection, her genius daughter, Natalie, who struggles to find peace and escape from her mother’s manic episodes in classical music as well as in her relationship with Henry, her new boyfriend, a jazz improvisationalist. Diana also has an ideal mother-son relationship with her first born, Gabe, who plays in a jazz band, on the football team, and still has time for Key Club (and his Instagram feed).  In the midst of her busy family life, Diana also spends quality time with her psychopharmacologist. Next to Normal opens April 19th and runs until the 28th. Part of Longwood’s 20th season, will be at the Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, MA 02150.

Entertainment

Watertown Dancer Performing in Cambridge Dance Company’s Production

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Watertown resident Grace Cassels will be dancing in the Cambridge Youth Dance Program’s production of “Divertissement Too” later this month. 

Divertissement Too, presented by the Cambridge Youth Dance Program, marks the company’s tenth annual spring concert in a showcase of depth and variety, elegance and whimsy, bringing three performances to BU Dance Theater April 28 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and April-29 at 2 p.m. 2018. Artistic/Executive Director: Deborah Mason Dudley

Dates: April 28-29, 2018

Performance Times:

Saturday, April 28, 2018 matinee @ 2:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 28, 2018 evening performance @ 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, April 29, 2018 @ 2:00 p.m.

Location: Boston University Dance Theater, 915 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA

For tickets, click here: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3337261

Entertainment

Mosesian Center Hosting Rock & Roll Celebration with Art Show, Gala

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The Mosesian Center for the Arts will host Art & Soul, with a gala featuring an acclaimed Rock & Roll historian, a concert and a BBQ dinner to go along with an art exhibit featuring portraits of rock musicians. Gala
On Thursday, April 12th, The Mosesian Center for the Arts will honor Peter Guralnick, Rock ‘n’ Roll historian extraordinaire and acclaimed author, known for his prize-winning two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis and his most recent biography, Sam Phillips: The Man who invented Rock ’n’ Roll. The evening’s Rock ‘n’ Roll celebration – Art & Soul, a fundraiser for the Mosesian Center for the Arts (MCA) kicks off with a Memphis-style BBQ dinner followed by a spirited conversation with Guralnick and storied writer, and editor Mark Feeney, followed by a Rock ‘n’ Soul Revue featuring Giant Kings with Special Guests Barrence Whitfield, Dennis Brennan, Andrea Gillis, and Jesse Dee! Giant Kings are Chris Cote, Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Marty Ballou, Andy Plaisted, Paul Ahstrand, and Mark Earley

For more information about the gala click here: http://www.mosesianarts.org/index.php/shows/mosesian-live/2018-mosesian-award-gala
Exhibit
On view March 22 through May 18, 2018 during regular business hours and during evening and weekend theater events. Opening reception March 23, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. (free and open to the public). Coinciding with our Annual Mosesian Award Gala that will honor Rock ‘n Roll historian, acclaimed author and prolific storyteller Peter Guralnick, the Art & Soul exhibition features professional and emerging contemporary art, as well as fan art, that is inspired by, pays tribute to or otherwise celebrates musicians, bands and music culture.

Entertainment

Watertown Art Gallery Features Works Made with Bold Application of Paint

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Watertown-based Room 83 Spring is hosting an exhibit called “Eye Feel,” featuring paintings where the paint has been applied thickly by hand, with a stick or straight from the tube. 

Paint and touch are paramount in Room 83 Spring’s current exhibition Eye Feel with Susan Carr, Tatyana Gubash, Katy Helman, Lavaughan Jenkins, and Ellen Wineberg. Each artist’s work has an insistent presence, which is articulated by the generous application of paint in the impasto technique. Straight from the tube, paint stick, or finger, paint is built up, slathered, and encrusted, often with colors colliding serendipitously on the surface. This deep investment in the physicality of the materials is imperative to expression, asserting object-ness and actuality. The heft of the paint preserves the hand’s mark-makings, becoming a narrative in itself, with the haptic quality underscoring a relational, even conceptual intent of the works.

Entertainment

New Rep Theatre Announces Productions for 2018-19 – Its 35th Season

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Watertown-based New Repertory Theatre announced the lineup for the company’s 35th season. See the announcement below:

Next year, New Repertory Theatre will celebrate 35 seasons of presenting plays that speak powerfully to the vital ideas of our time and continue a tradition of producing theatre that is bold, timely, and essential. We’re excited to share with you a season we’ve entitled AWAKENING, featuring seven illuminating and thought-provoking works. At New Rep, we believe that theatre can be a sanctuary, a place for all to come together as a community in conversation. Time and time again we hear from our audiences that the work that we do is important and that you come to New Rep to see smart, eye-opening plays that spark meaningful dialogue.