Gotta Have Arts

Parallel Lives
By Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy
Directed by Joy Arzaga, Christine DiBuono, Pia Haas and Marquette Pierce
With: Joan Cavallo, Benna Dinhofer, Irene Howard, Kathryn Kitt, Donna Marvin, Michelle Moriarty, Andrea Moro, Mika Nishi, Sabrina Reilly, Carmel Riggs, Brandi Russano, Julia Ryan, Misti Tindaglia and Leah Wendt

Friday, May 31, 2013 at 8pm
Saturday, June 1, 2013 at 8pm
Sunday, June 2, 2013 at 4pm
Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 8pm
Friday, June 7, 2013 at 8pm
Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 8pm

Adults: $20, Children 12 and under: $10

In the opening scene, two Supreme Beings plan the beginning of the world with the relish of two slightly sadistic suburban wives decorating a living room.  Once they’ve decided on the color scheme of the races, a little concerned that white people will feel slighted being such a boring color, they create sex and the sexes.  Afraid women will have too many advantages, the Beings decide to make childbirth painful and to give men enormous egos as compensation.

The audience is whisked through the outrageous sketches where a dozen or so actresses play men and women struggling through the common rituals of modern life.  This is a humorous show that pokes fun at women and is also thought provoking.  It looks at the human condition from a feminist perspective.  It deals with gender issues and women’s choices, but this is a man-friendly show.  With boundless humor, Parallel Lives reexamines the ongoing quest to find parity and love in a contest handicapped by capricious gods — or in this case, goddesses.

Ticket Purchase and Reservation Information

“Walk-ins” are always welcome but we recommend that you take advantage of one of several options we offer for purchasing or reserving tickets in advance.

The box office opens 45 minutes prior to curtain and tickets previously reserved or purchased with a credit card for that performance are picked up then.  If paying by check, make it out to Friends of the North Castle Public Library, Inc. or FNCPL, Inc..

To avoid double bookings, we request that if you reserve by phone, then do future communications by phone.  Likewise, if you purchase or reserve online, then do future communications by e-mail to tickets@armonkplayers.org.

1. Tickets may be purchased online here with your credit card.  We accept Visa, Master Card and Discover Card and you get to choose your own seats!  If you can’t make it to the performance, let us know in advance and we will be happy to swap your tickets for another performance.  But because of fees we pay on all credit card transactions, we regrettably cannot offer refunds.
2. Tickets may be reserved in advance and paid for on the day of the performance by filling out and submitting this online reservation request form.

If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail, you might have entered your e-mail address incorrectly.  Do not submit a new reservation request form.  Instead, send us an e-mail from the e-mail account you think you used telling us your name and letting us know that you are missing a reservation confirmation.  We will investigate and get back to you.

If for some reason you cannot make it to the performance, please e-mail us as early as possible so that we can release your reservation.  We reserve the right to make available to the general public any reservations that have not been picked up at least 10 minutes prior to curtain.  Thank you for understanding.

1. Tickets may be reserved in advance and paid for on the day of the performance by phoning (914) 861-2049.  We offer this option primarily for those who do not have computer access.  If you are reading this, that is probably not you and we much prefer that you use the above better-in-every-way online reservation form.

Leave your full name (please spell your last name), performance date, number and type of tickets and a phone number in case we need to contact you.  We regret that we do not have the resources to be able to confirm phone reservations with call backs.  So if you need a confirmation, then purchase or reserve using one of our online methods.

Please phone us as early as possible if you cannot keep a reservation.

We stop doing online reservations and ticket sales for a given performance up to two hours prior to curtain.  So if you are trying to purchase or reserve tickets online for the current day’s performance and find that the performance does not appear as one of the choices, you may still purchase tickets at the box office.  Likewise, we cannot guarantee that we will hear your phone reservation request if made within two hours of a performance.  But the hall is large and the odds of our finding you excellent seats are great.

Bold beats and folk icons, hand-crafted delicacies and gorgeous produce, unexpected art installations and an old-school working waterfront. Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, also simply and affectionately known as the Clearwater Festival (June 15-16, 2013; clearwaterfestival.org), unites major musical figures and green activism, building a creative community in one of the most scenic spots on the Hudson River.

Founded by Pete Seeger and nurtured by over a thousand dedicated volunteers, the event embraces the changing, increasingly hip, locavore, and eclectic spirit of the Hudson Valley. Old-school R&B (Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings) and new scions of gritty Americana Son Volt and Drive-By Truckers (now gone solo) Patterson Hood and Jason Isbell will play side-by-side with gospel soul legends like Mavis Staples, an unplugged Hot Tuna, and veteran legacy artists like Judy Collins and David Bromberg. New voices, including the Virginia mountain-top chamber pop of The Last Bison and the harmony-rich Brooklyn country of The Lone Bellow, will ring out alongside Seeger himself. Seeger will be performing with long-time collaborator Lorre Wyatt in a special festival appearance, one of several strong collaborations at this year’s festival. Hot Tuna & Steve Kimock and Keller Williams & The Travelin’ McCourys.

In addition to American roots music, the festival has long welcomed world music. This year is no exception, with Afrobeat intensity (Antibalas), uplifting Afropop (Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars), Bhangra-powered brass (Red Baraat), virtuosic Malian desert blues (Vieux Farka Touré), and funky Celtic-Asian fusion (Delhi 2 Dublin). Native American artists—Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joanne Shenandoah, and roots-soul vocalist Martha Redbone—are also a major component of the festival lineup.

“We’re still a folk fest, in that we feature artists from around the world,” explains festival director Steve Lurie. “Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk, with his background, is still folk. Sharon Jones is, too, as she plays R&B from a particular time, a particular scene. I use the broad sense of folk music as a guiding light.”

The festival’s other guiding light is changing the way people relate to the river, and to the environment and community in general. Along with prominent names on stages, the festival has an artisanal food and farm market, juried crafts fair, roving performers, traditional storytellers, an activist area, and a chance to ride on river craft like those that have traversed the Hudson for centuries. All in one two-day, zero-waste, bio diesel- and solar-powered festival in lush Croton Point Park, to support the mission of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc, one of the nation’s preeminent environmental organizations and a key mover in promoting policies to restore the Hudson to its former, teeming glory.

A festival may seem all about the summer sounds and good times, but, as festival founder and musical activist Pete Seeger himself long understood, art and its savoring can move people and work a much more profound transformation than any awareness campaign or mere sloganeering. “Singing together,” Seeger told NPR’s Scott Simon in a 2005 interview, “you suddenly find out that there are things you can learn from each other you can’t learn from arguments, that you might not learn any other way.” The same can be said for eating, listening, dancing, and sailing together.

“Not even Rip Van Winkle could sleep through the cultural clarion of today’s Hudson Valley. The legendary snoozer in Washington Irving’s tale might descend from his Catskill Mountains hollow to find some of the country’s best folk musicians at the Clearwater Festival in Croton-on-Hudson. Founded by now 93-year-old Pete Seeger, the festival marks its 35th anniversary in 2013.”—National Geographic Traveler, “Best Trips 2013”

“Music, politics, culture—they’re all tangled up! Hooray for tangling!” Seeger exclaimed in an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman.

Happily letting the tangle stand and inspire, the nonagenarian artist and folk legend laid the first foundation for what has become the Hudson Valley’s biggest musical celebration and community-organizing focal point when, more than forty years ago, he looked at his beloved, once vital river and saw with dismay it had become a heavily polluted, half-dead sewer.

Unwilling to let such a scenic, culturally important waterway decline further, Seeger and like-minded friends got together and raised enough money to build an old-fashioned sloop, the boats that long plied the Hudson’s water for centuries. Unable to find an old ship to restore, they found a Maine shipbuilder who created the sloop Clearwater and began changing the face of the river. They hoped the vessel would help bring locals back to their riverfronts, and help them see what had happened to their Hudson. Today the Clearwater sails at the forefront of environmental education, a floating classroom for youth and adults.

The festival evolved from the sloop and its travels. What started as a boat journey with musical stops along the way, complete with strawberry shortcake, eventually settled into a full-blown, stationary outdoor music and environmental festival. Over three and a half decades, it grew to embrace a unique balance of community spirit and hope—many local organizations do their briskest organizing and outreach during the two-day event—and top-quality performers from the best of the folk revival to edgier yet still crowd-friendly newcomers. “The most important thing is the artists’ artistic value,” says Lurie.

Yet the festival’s expansion did not smother its relaxed, open atmosphere, where a festivalgoer can join a community sing or see the river from a whole new perspective from sloop deck. Families are particularly welcome, thanks to the free admission policy for kids under 12. There’s a family stage, face painting and juggling, a hands-on musical petting zoo, and workshops to help young musicians build their own instruments from recycled materials.

The “tangle” of art, political thought, celebration, and cultural community Seeger praised makes for highly creative experiences that engage all the senses yet convey a vital message. An example from last year’s festival: At the entrance to the activism area, visitors were greeted with a wreath of olive branches from the Middle East, encased in a giant, gradually melting block of ice, suspended over a pool and symbolizing the inevitability of peace. “It moved people,” recalls long-time volunteer Roy Volpe, “and it said so much.”

What unites festival participants, from farmers to volunteers to headliners, is a shared ethos. “We’re all working on the same cause and issues, and it never feels like it’s just a festival,” reflects Volpe. “I’ve never crossed paths with volunteers at other events who’ve had this same experience. It’s a very special relationship.”

Sunday, February 3^rd from 3:00-5:00pm

WHAT:  This Sunday, February 3rd marks the 30^th Anniversary of the opening of the Katonah Museum of Art’s Young Artists exhibition.  This exhibition features work by about 400 local high school seniors from 40 high schools in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, and Fairfield counties. The students not only create the works, but also learn how to curate and install them in the Museum galleries as a team.

*Special Opening Reception for Students: February 3^rd from 3:00-5:00pm (more than 500 students/parents expected)

*This is a week-long exhibition thru February 10^th:

Tuesday – Friday
10 am- Noon: Free Admission for All
Noon – 5 pm: $10 Adults, $5 Seniors & Students
Saturday
10 am – 5 pm: $10 Adults, $5 Seniors & Students
Sunday:
Noon – 5 pm: $10 Adults, $5 Seniors & Students

Members & Children (Under the Age of 12) Always Enter Free

WHEN: Sunday, February 3 – Student Event
Sunday, February3-Sunday, February 10 – Young Artists Exhibition

WHERE:         Katonah Museum of Art,   134 Jay Street (Route 22), Katonah, NY

WHO:  The Katonah Museum of Art, located at 134 Jay Street (Route 22) in Katonah, NY originates ten to twelve exhibitions annually, covering a broad range of art and humanities topics. The KMA also offers lectures, films, workshops, concerts and other events for a general audience; and presents innovative and substantive programs for over 100 member schools. The Learning Center is the only interactive space in Westchester County where children can come on a daily basis to explore and create art.

*Museum hours: Sunday: 12pm – 5pm, Tuesday through Saturday: 10pm – 5pm, Closed Monday; Admission: $10 Adults, $5 Seniors & Students, Members & Children (Under the Age of 12) Always Enter Free

PRESS: Dawn Dankner-Rosen/Melissa Napolitano, DDR Public Relations, 914-747-2500