Library Performance of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein - Thursday, October 8

Enter the mind and imagination of English writer Mary Shelley, best known as the author of Frankenstein.

Storyteller and performer Susan Marie Frontczak steps into Shelley’s shoes to draw the audience into the nineteenth century parlor to learn more about this person, both personally and psychologically.

The one-hour program consists of a 45 minute monologue in-character, followed by a question and answer period with “Mary Shelley”. The program will be held in the Longmont Library meeting rooms on Thursday, October 8 from 7:00 to 8:00 PM.

This program is free and open to the public and is funded by the Friends of the Longmont Public Library.

Longmont Public Library
409 4th Avenue
Longmont, CO 80501
303-651-8782

A Public Party for Boulder’s Arts Scene!

AmericanStyle Magazine Readers Rank Boulder among Top 25 For Arts

City honored for its commitment to arts institutions and arts tourism
Boulder County Arts Alliance and Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery plan public celebration



Once again the readers of AmericanStyle magazine have named Boulder as among America's Top 25 Arts Destinations, ranking it No. 8 in this year's survey. The magazine recognizes the power of the arts in promoting economic development and community revitalization.

Through the poll, readers tell AmericanStyle where they’ve been going to view, enjoy and shop for great art. Says publisher Wendy Rosen, “We all know that art and handcraft galleries are among the few remaining places where you can find authentic, made-in- America gifts and art products.”

While Boulder has received such recognition numerous times in the past and from a variety of sources, this marks the first time that the public will be invited to join in celebrating the honor. In an unusual collaboration between the non-profit and for profit sectors of the arts community, the Boulder County Arts Alliance and the Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery have joined forces to orchestrate an artful ceremony surrounding the award’s presentation to the City of Boulder.

Among the individuals and organizations contributing to this celebration are Philip Sneed of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Frequent Flyers Productions Aerial Dance Theatre, Helander Dance Theater Company, and The Dairy Center for the Arts. Receiving the award on behalf of the City will be Mayor, Matthew Applebaum. Those in attendance can expect fun, food, and entertainment galore. Champagne Toast generously provided by North Boulder Liquors.

Who: The Boulder County Arts Alliance and the Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery
What: A Public Party for Boulder’s Arts Scene
When: October 9th from 5-7 p.m.
Where: The Dairy Center for the Arts

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is at Boulder’s Dinner Theatre through Nov. 7. Music and lyrics by William Finn. Book by Rachel Sheinkin.
Directed and choreographed by Alicia Dunfee.
Based on C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, an original play by The Farm.

By Rebecca Jessup

Nerds, unite! Geeks and eggheads, welcome! This musical brings all our most painful pre-teen (and teenage) moments to life with clarity, humor, and just the right combination of affection and horror. If we weren’t laughing and tapping our toes, we’d be sobbing. The New York Times aptly called this show “A Chorus Line with pimples.”

The contestants in the Putnam County Spelling Bee are middle-schoolers played vividly by adults, who are challenged to spell words like “chimerical,” “hasenpfeffer” and “crepuscule.” (At each performance, a couple of volunteer audience members are brought onstage to play spellers who don’t make the final cut.) The six key students are academic overachievers whose social insecurities and ineptitudes are palpable.

As in A Chorus Line, each contestant gets the spotlight long enough to explain his or her particular psychic pain. Olive (Alicia Dunfee) has a mother who has effectively abandoned her and a father who doesn’t show up for the bee, and her best friend is the dictionary. Leaf (Matthew Peters) comes from a family of hippies, makes his own clothes, has arrived in the contest by default, and doubts that he’s smart. Billy Barfee (Scott Beyette) is the nerdiest of the bunch, the greatest overachiever and the most maladroit in relating to others. Chip (Bryan Jackson) is the previous year’s winner, on whom puberty has landed like a cartoon safe falling from the sky. Marcy Park (Anna Hanson) is a parochial-school automaton who speaks six languages, plays piano and violin, and is pained to hear herself described as “all business.” Logainne Schwartzandgrubenierre (Mary McGroary), the youngest, suffers from severe anxiety covered by a wide smile; While her two fathers fuss over her, she speculates as to who and where her mother is, and whether they’ll ever meet.

The spellers are ushered through the competition by three adults: Rona Peretti (Shelly Cox-Robie), the one-time champion who has run the bee for years; Vice Principal Douglas Panch (Wayne Kennedy), the pronouncer; and “comfort counselor” Mitch Mahoney (Leonard Barrett), who hands out hugs and juice boxes to the losers.

As the characters make their way through the spelling bee, they recognize and protest the inherent unfairness of the contest (as in the song “Pandomonium”), and each character is personally tested and challenged. Only one takes the champion’s cup, but none leaves without some transformation. The audience may not notice the lessons for the laughter.

The stage set effectively evokes a high school gym. The costumes are witty and successful illustrations of the characters. All the voices and performances are strong and true, a testament to the talents of the cast, as well as the direction. Overall, the show is completely winning.

Rebecca Jessup (jessupr @ comcast.net) is a Latin teacher and freelance writer.

Breasts for Peace

Yep, you read the headline right. Now go ahead and snicker if you must. But when you’re finished, take just a moment to understand why Lyons artist Sally White King recently invited area women to leave imprints of their breasts on muslin prayer flags at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art.

Apparently, when soldiers from the Dagara tribe in the West African nation of Burkina Faso return home from war, they walk through a welcoming line of women, whose bare breasts are considered nurturing symbols that help heal the horrors of war.

“War is not permitted back into the village,” King says. “When I heard the story, it hit me like a lightning bolt, and I wanted to do something with it for the American soldiers who are returning home from war in the Middle East.” And that’s how the Breast Prayers for Peace project was born.

After staging a similar event in Lyons earlier this year, King worked with a friend, Sarah Kinn, who’s BMoCA’s adult-education coordinator, to organize Boulder’s event. About 25 women turned out each time, including several women in their 70s and a mother and her daughter.

“It was definitely a weird experience,” Kinn says, noting that the women were protected from public view while their chests were painted and they made their impressions. But she says the participants were grateful to be given a unique opportunity to show their support for American troops in a way that reverses the objectification of women’s bodies and emphasizes their “power of healing and nurturing.”

It was also “lighthearted and humorous,” Kinn says. “When you get naked with other people, you bond somehow.”

King strung the prayer flags on an 80-foot-long rope, and hopes to find a place to display them soon. “I’m having a blast with this,” she says.

—Michael Whiteman-Jones

MindSpiral: Live Space Music & Laser Star Show Comes to Fiske Planetarium, Oct 3

There was a day, anyone with a tape machine, a synthesizer and some effects called themselves "electronic musicians."

But, the genre of ambient/space and electronic music has grown up. MindSpiral, a fine example of thoughtful, musical, soulful electronic space music will be at Fiske Planetarium this Saturday, October 3 at 7pm. This must see, must hear event, complete with the laser show magic of the planetarium, is a kid friendly show and tickets are only $10.

MindSpiral is the name given to a series of collaborations between Boulder resident Mike Metlay and various members of the worldwide electronic music community. This year's project pairs Metlay with ambient/space music pioneer Tony Gerber.

Gerber has been in the electronic music scene for many years. He built his first synthesizer in 1975 at age 14, and began experimenting with recording sounds using cellophane covering the erase head of a reel-to-reel tape deck. He continues to be a pioneer both through his continually maturing music and evolving soundscapes, which now include Native American flutes and new digital technology, and through his involvement in the 3D virtual world of Second Life.

Gerber's reputation as performer Cypress Rosewood in Second Life has marked him as one of the most successful musicians to use the virtual world to catapult his career––spawning a real world/virtual world radio show, hundreds of in-world concerts, television interviews and numerous CDs released under his "avatar's" name. This is Gerber's first visit to the Denver/Boulder area, where he already has a solid fan base from his Second Life work. His music has a reputation for uplifting, healing and relaxing on a very deep and profound level.

Metlay brings a battery of sampled and digitally generated sounds wrapped up in his laptops. I've heard some of mindSpiral's earlier offerings (there have been eight previous collaborations) and this is some solid, great electronic space music played with intelligence and intent.

Metlay's 30-year career is as an artist, producer, bandleader, community-builder, and event organizer in the realm of experimental music. While Mike is most famous for the Different Skies concerts at Arcosanti, Arizona, he has gained critical and popular acclaim for the concerts he does at home for his local audience under the name mindSpiral. Metlay also performs in Second Life under the avatar name Sprial Sands.

The evening promises to be full of soaring, uplifting spiritual space music of a sort rarely heard in Colorado, fun and exciting for listeners of all ages, with the Fiske’s famous visuals providing an inspiring backdrop for mindSpiral’s live music... including a guest appearance by Fritz, the Fiske’s famous Zeiss planetarium projector, who will rise from his hibernation pit to join Tony and Mike under a starry and laser-lit sky.

It’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before. It’s not to be missed. It’s mindSpiral!

GET THE SCOOP

mindSpiral
Fiske Planetarium
Saturday, October 3, 7pm
Tickets: $10. On sale now at the Fiske Planetarium box office.

Sponsored by Sonorant VR2L Media™, bringing the worlds music to virtual worlds...and back!


BONUS: Read the Daily Camera interview with Mike Metlay by Greg Glasgow in April, 2007. NOTE THE TIME OF THE 2007 SHOW WAS 8PM. SATURDAY'S SHOW IS AT 7PM.

Ticket information also available on the CU Events website