THE STAR-SPANGLED GIRL is set in the San Francisco in the 1960s and is a love triangle mixed with politics.   Andy and Norman are radicals who barely make a living working on their magazine, Fallout, which is dedicated to fighting "the system" in America. Sophie, a former Olympic swimmer, is an all-American, Southern girl who moves into the apartment next door. It's love at first sight (or, as the play has it, first smell) for Norman, but his feelings are not reciprocated. Norman's obsession with Sophie makes Andy hire her just to keep the magazine going. Then Sophie falls for Andy, though they are at odds politically, threatening to destroy the magazine and the men's friendship.

Directed by F. George Paris

One of the most riveting and popular dramas to hit Broadway in the last decade opens with a haunting question: “What do you do when you’re not sure?” Set in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, Doubt concerns Father Flynn, an amiable new priest who believes the clergy should be thought of “as members of the family” to its congregation. His forward-thinking views immediately clash with those of Sister Aloysius ― the authoritarian principal who favors discipline over compassion. The conflict mounts towards an explosive climax when Aloysius accuses Flynn of “interfering” with a student based on unproven evidence. The shocking conclusion will leave you wondering “What is truth? And who is telling it?" This captivating drama captured both the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2005.

Performance Information:

Dates: July 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 26, 31, August 1

Times: Fridays and Saturdays 8:00 pm/ Sunday 2:00 pm

Tickets: $20 (includes $1.50 service fee) - Reserved Seating

Studio 59 Downtown

55 Main St. Torrington, CT

860-482-6801

Stephen Karam's hilarious 2007 off-Broadway hit comes to Hartford's TheaterWorks!  Three high school students in Salem, Oregon go on a modern day witch hunt involving sex, lies & YouTube videos!

June 12 through July 14, 2009

Artist Reception May 1, 6 - 8 p.m.

Chet Kempczynski

retro:works

Hartford Public Library opens ARTWALK, a new exhibition space in Downtown Hartford.  The ARTWALK will draw from a diverse community of artists to showcase the creative spirit of Metro Hartford.  The inaugural show features Hartford native Chet Kempczynski.  Kempczynski attended the Hartford Art School and the Paier School of Art, Connecticut, where he studied with the realist painter Ken Davies. Over the last four decades, he has exhibited extensively in the U.S., Spain and France.  This retrospective show captures the transitions in his work from small and precise still life images in oil to oil monotypes that capture the exterior and interior light, color and essence of landscapes. The ARTWALK is made possible through the generosity of our donors, including the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.

…Age is a dynamic public art collaboration between Greater Hartford cultural organizations.  Created under the banner of the national Age in America project, the exhibition represents a conversation between generations of artists, poets, and community members and showcases the unique contributions of participating organizations working together with the theme of age and aging in our region.    

Main Street walkway between Hartford Public Library and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

Thursday, May 14 through Friday, August 28

Opening Reception, 5:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Hartford Public Library, Hartford History Center, 3^rd Floor

Capital Classics Shakespeare Festival production of "The Tempest."  Professional, family-oriented, classical theater.  Outdoor setting in beautiful weather.  Indoor theater when raining.

Hotchkiss Summer Portals Chamber Series welcomes the Brentano String Quartet Friday, July 10 at 7;30 pm, playing Haydn's quartet in g, opus 20 #3, Shostakovich's quartet #15, and Beethoven's quartet, opus 18 #1. The Brentano will join Portals' Faculty Artists Saturday, July 11 for a concert featuring Schnittke' piano quartet, Mendelssohn's b-flat viola quintet, and Brahms' sextet in g. Summer Portals concerts take place in Katherine M. Elfers Hall in the Esther Eastman Music Center on the grounds of The Hotchkiss School. All concerts are free and open to the public, and the campus is open for picnics prior to all concerts.

Group exhibition of photos by architects highlighting the ways these designers perceive their surroundings through the camera´s lens and present their images as art. Guest curator: Roberto Espejo.

Plant Clinic Open for the Season

Monday, May 11, 9:00am- 12 noon and 12:30- 3:30pm

Having a plant or gardening dilemma? Bring any questions or plant samples to the UCONN Master Gardeners for help. The Plant Clinic is open Monday through Friday throughout the growing season.  This is a FREE service. Call 203-322-6971 for questions, visit www.bartlettarboretum.org or email visitorservices@bartlettarboretum.org

 Opening Reception: Friday May 15, 6-8pm & Film and Multimedia Project Screenings begin 7pm

The annual Arts and Media Festival showcases projects produced by MxCC’s Broadcast Communications, Fine Arts, Graphic Design and Multimedia students.  In addition to the student film and multimedia projects screening, student works are displayed throughout the Jean Burr Smith Library, Pegasus Gallery and the Niche.  This exhibition allows each instructor to share the most accomplished examples of student skill, ingenuity and creativity with our entire campus and local community.

The Jean Burr Smith Library is located on the first floor of Chapman Hall,Hours: Monday - Thursday 8:30am-8:00pm Friday 8:30am-4:30pm & Saturday 8:30am-1:30pm when classes are in session.

Pegasus Gallery, Hours: Monday & Wednesday 5pm-8pm & Saturday 9:30-1:30pm when classes are in session.

The Niche is located on the first floor of Founders Hall and open: Mondays through Thursdays 8:30am-6:00pm, Fridays & Saturdays 8:30am-4:30pm when classes are in session.

July 9, 10, 11 and July 16, 17, 18, 2009
6:00, 7:00, and 8:15 PM

After a four-year absence the Travelers Science Dome is bringing back laser music shows for two weeks this summer. These concerts use a solid state projection system from Audio Visual Imagineering called Skylase that covers the planetarium dome with colorful swirling patterns and cartoon images that complement the recordings played by the original artists.

The first show each evening, at 6:00 pm, will be suitable for children with their parents and will last about 30 minutes. Tickets for the family program will be $5.00 for TCM Members and $6.00 for non-members. The first week’s show will be Laser Pop, a collection of radio hits such as “Get This Party Started” by Pink and “I’m a Believer” by Smashmouth. The second week, the early show will be Laser Beatles including the songs “Twist and Shout” and “Help.”

Later each night there will be two different programs, one at 7:00 pm and another at 8:15 pm that may not be suitable for younger children (PG-13). Tickets for the 45 – 50 minute adult shows will cost $7.00 for TCM Members and $8.00 for non-Members. The first week will include Laser U2, a collection of their hits from the past 30 years, and Laser X: The Alternative Experience with bands like Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins. During the second week, we will feature Laser Retro at 7PM with bands from the 80s and early 90s like The Police and INXS. At 8:15PM will be Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, one of the most popular laser shows ever.

To pre-order tickets call 860.231.2830 x44 or e-mail Events@TheChildrensMuseumCT.org. Tickets, if still available, will also be sold at the door.

Begins Wednesday, June 24, and operate every Wednesday from 10:00am-2:00pm ending on September 9th. Our market will be held on the Great Lawn area and features local, grown products from CT. Have lunch at the Bartlett. Buy a sandwich made with fresh, local produce. Collection D'Objets D'Art. A special market addition featuring a table of gently used, new and surplus items with 50% of the proceeds being donated to the Bartlett. Call 203-322-6971 for questions, visit www.bartlettarboretum.org or email visitorservices@bartlettarboretum.org for information.

Trinity College will host the 60th Annual Plumb Memorial Carillion Concerts and the 35th Annual Chamber Music Series as part of the 2009 Summer Music Series.  The music series, held annually at the College, features performances every Wednesday during the summer, over a nine-week period.  The performances are free and open to the public and will be held rain or shine.  Attendees are encouraged to bring a picnic.  For a complete schedule, please visit: www.trincoll.edu.  

The Stevens-Frisbie House in Cromwell Connecticut is open each Sunday afternoon for visitors. The House is a museum of Cromwell history and features exhibits about the Frisbie and Ranney families.  Admission is Free.

Hot Jazz Happy Hour on the Courtyard series at The Funky Monkey Cafe & Gallery.  Beatufiul secluded brick courtyard in historic Watch Factory Shoppes of Cheshire. No charge, complimentary appetizers, beer/wine specials.  Every other Friday spring/summer. 6/12, 6/26, 7/10, 7/24. 

 July 6-10, 9am-3pm

Connecting children with nature through science and exploration.

Spend the week exploring the most populous inhabitants on earth, insects. Encounter both the enemies of our garden and the insects that keep them under control. Daily bug patrol in the vegetable garden will always find something new. 

Call 203-322-6971 for questions, visit www.bartlettarboretum.org or email tdupont@bartlettarboretum.org for information.

July 6-10, 9am-3pm

Connecting children with nature through science and exploration.

97% of all animals in the world do not have a backbone.  Meet our hissing cockroach, observe swallowtail and monarch butterflies, hunt for insects under logs in our woods, and scoop in our pond for dragonfly nymphs and other aquatic invertebrates. Call 203-322-6971 for questions, visit www.bartlettarboretum.org or email tdupont@bartlettarboretum.org for information.

July 6-10, 9 am-12 noon

Connecting children with nature through science and exploration.

What are those plants and animals that you see in your backyard? Are they pollinators or decomposers? This week will be spent hunting in our butterfly garden, planting in the greenhouse and searching for wildflowers in our woods. 

Call 203-322-6971 for questions, visit www.bartlettarboretum.org or email tdupont@bartlettarboretum.org for information.

Community Health Services Hartford, a Federally Qualified Health Center in the North End of Hartford is opening a Farmer's Market in conjunction with its Food share distribution program.  The Farmer's Market, slated to open July 10, 2009 and stay open weekly Friday mornings from 8 - 11 AM will feature health improvement programs with the Farmer's Market, programs to utilize the produce in healthy ways to improve diets and reduce obesity, and additional programming to reduce the trash loads, understand and connect people with the food they eat and demonstrate healthy lifestyle and food choices.

Fresh produce is difficult to find in the North End, often stores carry limited produce and there are transportation and safety issues as well. Increasingly city dwellers have become disconnected from their food sources and chose high fat/highly processed foods instead. Endemic to this area, often seen as the thirdd poorest in the nation for a city of its size, are diabetes, hypertension and obesity, all thieves of quality of life.

We hope you will help us to celebrate this innovative program.

This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to explore the process of fine arts conservation, uncovering the relationship between curators and conservators and the objects entrusted to their care. Each of the works in the exhibition, which includes Asian ceramics, African ritual objects, ancient statues and mosaics, and American and European paintings and decorative arts from the Gallery’s collection, illustrates a different conservation dilemma. What does cleaning a painting’s surface reveal? Should fragmented objects be displayed as pieces or reassembled into a convincing pastiche? Should damaged objects be repaired for aesthetic reasons? The passage of time impacts not only the physical state of an object but also the techniques used to preserve it. Time Will Tell examines the evolving science of conservation and the questions that arise in preserving works of art while staying faithful to the artists’ intentions.

Currently in its 14th season, Shakespeare on the Sound presents Settle's site-specific production of A Midsummer Night's Dream  in beautiful Baldwin Park, Greenwich July 4-12.  Audiences are invited to arrive early and picnic in the park before the performance.  There is no admission fee, but a donation of $20 ($10 for students and seniors) is suggested.  The production is less than a five minute walk from the Greenwich Metro-North stop.  Ample parking is available.

WEST HARTFORD, CT – The summer installation of Saint Joseph College Art Gallery’s permanent collection includes a special exhibition Peaceful Pastures: Aspects of Agricultural America by Early Twentieth Century Artists.  It will be on view through Sunday, September 6.

Peaceful Pastures is an exhibition of works that display the beauty of rural America through the eyes of early twentieth century artists. In this period the rural lifestyle that once characterized America was being swept away by the development of bustling cities, an economic depression, and the hardships of war. Amidst this increasingly urban existence, many artists chose to portray a rural America that still felt like home. Although Thomas Willoughby Nason’s wood engravings depict the tranquil beauty of New England farms while Eugene Higgins and John Edward Costigan illustrate the toil of farm work, they all portray the familiar calmness of a pastoral setting. The exhibition was organized by Kara Auclair, an intern at Saint Joseph College Art Gallery, who will be a senior at Simsbury High School in the fall.

Also on view this summer at Saint Joseph College Art Gallery is a selection of paintings and works on paper from the permanent collection as well as Beyond Words, an installation of prints that use text as image and message, including screen prints by Sister Mary Corita Kent and posters by the Guerilla Girls.

The Saint Joseph College Art Gallery is located in The Bruyette Athenaeum, part of The Carol Autorino Center for the Arts and Humanities. The Art Gallery presents regular exhibitions drawn from its permanent collections as well as loan exhibitions of historic art or of contemporary work by artists of national and international prominence.

The Art Gallery is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.; Thursday: 11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.; and Sunday: 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.; closed Monday. Admission is free of charge.