Dayton937

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

Dayton Most Metro

Call for Round 2 of Downtown Community Mural Project

By Leave a Comment

A team of downtown arts leaders and activists consisting of Lisa Helm (Garden Station), Jerri Stanard (K-12 Gallery) and Carli Dixon (Atta Girl), is spearheading an effort to beautify a section of East Third Street with a new mural project. In much the same way as the Wayne Avenue murals at the underpass next to Garden Station, this new set of murals at Third and Webster will be selected from submissions by local artists, and a stipend will be awarded to each winning artist. The project will be partially funded by a Neighborhood Mini Grant from the City of Dayton.

Due to the close proximity of the 2nd Street Market, a vegetable and fruit theme has been adopted for the murals. The theme may include, but is not limited to, large scale, colorful fruits and vegetables (local to the area preferred), and related items. Abstract and non-conventional interpretations of produce are also welcomed.

“If some of the images were inspired by famous artists that would be an amazing transition from the HAALO project, (on 3rd Street just west of the proposed murals) completed by 30 teens from the Montgomery County Juvenile Court program, and would allow the walk-by patrons to learn about art history in a fun and memorable way” says team member Jerri Stanard of K-12 Gallery. Some ideas for submission of artwork for the underpass at Third and Webster could include: Keith Haring “Carrots”, Giuseppe Arcimboldo “Vegetable Faces”, Edward Hoppers “Ears of Corn”, Mary Cassatt’s “Cucumbers”, Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Okra” or “Green Beans”, and Tripoli’s “Tomatoes”.

The spaces available for painting will include the areas on the retaining wall on the southeast side of the intersection as well as sections under the overpass. Spaces on the retaining wall are approximately 13’ x13’ and the underpass spaces are 8’x 8’ squares (see attached pictures, these can be used as a submission template by printing or tracing dimensions).

A committee comprised of artists, area business owners and city representatives will select the winning designs. Designs will be judged based on originality, appropriateness for the space and design quality.

Each artist whose mural design is selected will receive $125 upon completion of each mural. Sixteen gallons of

The 2009 mural project

exterior paint will be available to all of the artists to share. The colors will include red, orange, yellow, light and dark green, sky blue, lilac, and purple. Also, a $75 supply stipend per mural will be given to each artist to individualize his/her palette.

Multiple submissions are encouraged. Submissions may be submitted in any format or size, as long as the proposed design is clearly illustrated. Artists also are encouraged to submit a resume or letter outlining their qualifications to complete this type of project.

Submissions are due by 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 1. Winners will be announced at Urban Nights on September 14 at an event in Garden Station.

Submissions can be e-mailed  or mailed to:

Downtown Mural Project c/o Carli Dixon, 811 E. Third Street, Dayton, OH 45402

Winning artists will have until Friday, November 2, to finish their work. The murals will be unveiled that evening at First Friday festivities. “The City of Dayton grant to create more murals along East Third Streets puts us that much closer to competing with Philadelphia’s public art and becoming the destination where tourists will stay an extra day to experience all the incredible amenities we have in Dayton Ohio”, says Stanard.

Additional donations are also being accepted to help fund the project through indigogo. “The Neighborhood Mini Grant from the city will cover the cost of about 13 murals and requires a 50% match”, says Lisa Helm. “While we will more than meet our match requirements with the value of all the volunteer hours, we need the money for paint and artist stipends. There are 37 spaces in the intersection available to paint, it would be nice to fill them all, if not with full murals at least with bright colored spaces between some of the murals “

Clean up days are scheduled for the morning of August 25 and 26.  Volunteers will be needed to clear brush, weeds, trash and to prime the spaces. Updates will be posted at www.facebook.com/GardenStation

If you have questions or need additional information, please contact Lisa at [email protected] or 937-610-3845.

TRASH DANCE: Award-winning film comes to Dayton

By Leave a Comment


Director Andrew Garrison

Making people whose work is often invisible feel as if they count is a matter of great concern to Austin Texas filmmaker and former Daytonian Andrew Garrison.  In the spirit of showing the dignity and meaning of everyday work most people take for granted, Garrison has collaborated with choreographer Allison Orr to create TRASH DANCE, a 68 minute film documenting the lives—and one extraordinary day in those lives—of 24 Austin garbage collectors.  The award winning film is scheduled for a screening and Q and A with director Andrew Garrison at the 2012 FilmDayton Festival on Saturday, August 25 beginning at 5:15 PM.

Trash Dance debuted to rave reviews by audiences and critics at SXSW, where it received a special jury recognition prize.  The film also won the Audience Award at the Full Frame documentary festival and most recently took away the Audience Award at the Discovery Channel’s Silverdocs festival.  The Silverdocs festival proved to be extraordinary for Dayton, as not only Garrison’s film won, but also Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s film Sparkle, a documentary about legendary Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s Sheri “Sparkle” Williams, which won the Short Documentary Audience Award.

Photo by Andrew Garrison

Trash Dance’s main character, its choreographer Allison Orr, with her pixie haircut and wide disarming smile, had become known in Austin and beyond for her choreography of everyday movement like dog walking or roller skating.  For this project, she undertook the monumental task of assembling the sanitation workers and their trucks on an abandoned runway and running the mass of garbage trucks through a specially choreographed “dance” spectacle for an assembled audience of over 2000. “It was pouring rain, we had seating for 700, and 2000 people showed up to watch it happen,” said Garrison from his home in Austin.  “Nobody expected that kind of response.”

The big event was preceded by a full year of filming, beginning with a serendipitous meeting.  “So much of this film, like so many films, depended on luck,” Garrison said.  “I didn’t know Allison, but had read about interesting things she had choreographed with unusual performers.  Roller skaters, dog walkers… I was ready to do something fun, ready to move my camera around.”

“I was at a meeting one night and a guy asked me what I was going to do next, so I told him I was interested in working with Allison. Turns out he was her husband, and she was due to start her safety training with the sanitation workers the following week…”

Article written and submitted by FilmDayton Volunteer Deb Lukjanovs.  Read the full article at FilmDayton.com

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK-uU5PQdG4′]

 

 

 

Rodney Veal: An Artistic Conversation

By Leave a Comment

Rodney Veal, an independent choreographer and interdisciplinary artist (as well as DMM Contributor), serves as adjunct faculty for both Stivers School of the Performing Arts and Sinclair Community College.   Mr. Veal is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University with a B.S in Political Science and Visual Arts.  He recently received his M.F.A in Choreography from The Ohio State University.  He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Ohio Dance and Involvement Advocacy/Blue Sky Project.

Mr. Veal was recently awarded a MCACD Fellowship for 2010-2011.  Several of his works have been performed as a part of the Ohio Dance Festival.  He recently exhibited “Seen/Unseen” at Gallery 510 as a part of the 510 Project Initiative.  Rodney recently directed “Soul Rhythms” a multi-disciplinary show on culture and dance, the culmination of the culture builds community-Intensive Cultural Residency Project created by CityFolk; recent projects include a solo multi-media performance exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Art, Reveal: Five Zones of Beauty in the summer of 2011.

Blue Sky Project is a summer experience that empowers professional artists from around the world and local youth to collaborate and build community through the creation of ambitious works of contemporary art and performance.  Rodney Veal participated in the Blue Sky Project in 2009 and has continued his involvement in the program since then.  He is now one of six returning resident artist who have come back to the program for the summer of 2012.  He is also temporarily functioning as the programs artistic director.  I had the opportunity to sit down with Rodney and discuss his upcoming projects.

"2, 3, 4" - a collaboration between Rodney Veal, Katherine Mann, and Shaw Pong Liu

Philip Titlebaum:  How did you find out about and become affiliated with Blue Sky Project?

Rodney Veal:  I became aware of Blue Sky in 2009.  I saw an ad for an artist residency program and what was unusual about it was that it was a call for artists from any and all disciplines.  Which is kind of rare.  Usually it’s very specific to a genre of art making.  It’s all visual, or all music, or all dance, but never where you have visual, music, dance, video, performance art, installation art, environmental art, everything combined.  So I applied for one of the residencies.  It was really competitive for five spots, I got in and that started my connection to Blue Sky in 2009 that has continued until today.

PT:  How are you balancing being both a resident artist and the artistic director of Blue Sky Project?

RV:  The artistic directorship is very temporary, just for the summer, but the balance part is going pretty well because I know what the other artists are in need of and that’s someone who is going to listen and someone who is going to take it very seriously to help them achieve their goals, whether that’s finding their materials or finding them a place to show their work or if it’s just somebody to have as an extra set of eyes in the artistic process and as they develop things.  I’m really glad to be able to take on that role temporarily for the summer.  Mequitta [Ahuja] is phenomenal, who’s the artistic director of the program, so I had some very big shoes to fill but I took it as a really good challenge and an opportunity to give back and so far the balance has been pretty good.  I’m working just as hard making my art.  I think Mequitta would be the first one to say that she still followed her own practices while she was artistic director when she was a part of the Blue Sky summers, so I just followed her lead and it seems to balance itself out really well.

Artemis - "Mythologies"

PT:  You’re an artist of many disciplines. How has your interest and involvement in different art forms developed over time and how do these different disciplines inform one another?

RV:  I struggled with the combination of these multiple disciplines because of my background.  My undergraduate degree is in political science and visual arts so I had a completely different take on how I was going to move forward in my life and then dance appeared.  I pretty much sublimated the visual arts and the political science aspects to really take seriously studying dance because it just required so much.  I was getting thrust into dance in a very unusual way, especially the fact that it was ballet.  I was pretty much an experiment because I started so late.  I started when I was 19 and then really didn’t take it seriously until I was 23 or 24.  It required a lot of focus and intention and it required a lot of time.  Training at that level required me to be in the studio taking class and rehearsing six days a week and so there wasn’t really much time to develop anything else.

Those talents and skills and desires to create paintings and drawings and sketches still existed and they manifested themselves every now and then but nothing very seriously until I got toward the end of my dance career.  You start to look for other options and you start realizing, well what’s phase two of this dance career and there’s teaching and choreography, which I fell in love with but then what happens?  What makes you different?  What’s going to make you stand out or what’s informing the process?  I realized looking back on the things I had created that I was really painting the space with human bodies.  I was using broad brush strokes to move and manipulate people through space, which is very similar to painting and I just thought, wait a minute, you’re using the skills you already had.  Well how do you combine all your loves and passions and the things that you love and the skill sets you have into one?

At that point I was teaching and I was retiring and a good friend of mine, who was also a professional dancer, made a suggestion that I should go to grad school at The Ohio State University.  I applied and I got in.  When I got to grad school my goal was just to focus on choreography but what was interesting was that they had a really strong technology and media presence in their degree program and I think a lot of it had to do with my background in visual arts and my love for film and it was just that love of and passion for the moving image plus the visual arts degree that allowed me to navigate learning Final Cut and Photoshop and picking up software programs a lot easier than most.  I found that I loved it and I actually changed my focus that first year towards making my final thesis project combine everything that I do.

I’m glad I did because then, in the midst of all of that, I got my residency with Blue Sky, which is very unusual.  I was still in grad school, doing a major project in the summer for the residency and developing my MFA project.  I’ll be honest with you I feel like that was the best thing I could have done for me to have my first stepping out in that sort of way to do a large scope performance art installation piece.  It was really successful and I’m forever tied to these sort of cross disciplinary works because I think it’s just a much more exciting process because while there are rules within the individual genres of the art forms when you’re combining them cross-disciplinary, there are no rules for the final product.  So you’re making your own rules of the usage of and how it’s being used because it’s not strictly one thing or another.  So it’s not someone judging it solely as a photo exhibit.  No, it’s the photography, combined with the video imagery, plus the installation so it becomes something different entirely and then there’s a performative element if I choose to perform with it.  A lot of people aren’t very comfortable with that as art makers because they’re very “Oh, I must stick to my rules,” but I love that it has rules up to a point and then you’re on your own and that’s what excites me.

Ares - "Mythologies"

PT:  Your upcoming exhibition, “Mythologies,” focuses on early Greek culture.  Can you speak a little bit about that project and what inspired it?

RV:  Yeah, I think the biggest thing was that in 2011 I was coming off of an exhibition at the Springfield Museum of Art called ReVeal: Five Zones of Beauty.  Part of that opened up this question of representation because there was a strong element within it of a segment called epic beauty, which dealt with beauty that is larger than life, so to speak, where the beauty was entailing of a sort of almost mythical stance.  I think this is kind of an extension of that.

How do you represent the mythic form?  How do you represent and pull out the personality and character within that and make a larger statement?  Then I started thinking about Greek mythology because Greek culture is pretty much the foundation for the republic that the United States is formed on, which is that political science connection, then seeing how their culture embraced the body, how their culture embraced beauty. Greek mythology isn’t just straightforward.  It’s so rich.  There’s a lot there. I feel like I’m only scratching the surface of it but I thought I’d start at the top and start with the mythology of the gods and goddesses.  In that research I found that the Greek city-states and the towns and the villages all had a different relationship with the gods and goddesses.  So there was no real straightforward myth, only what survived in the records.  One of the gods in one city could be viewed as a very vengeful god and in another one as a heroic savior-protector and that could be the next town over.  So this whole notion that within a culture everybody can have their own different interpretation of this mythic figure and what that mythic figure represents, which gets into a question of spirituality and religion because it was their spirituality and religion was based upon multiple gods and goddesses.

How does that relate to a monotheistic society, like our culture, that is predominantly Judeo-Christian, that question of a god and what does that mean? And then to have twelve, talk about a very complex relationship with your spirituality if there’s a representation of twelve and to have a category for each one and what they represent but then how it all is intertwined into your world and your belief system and how you function.  That to me was very fascinating. And what if that still existed?  What if that had never really gone away?  What if it had been a parallel tract of the one God in all these other cultures, to still have that multiple god stance going through?  We’ve had a lot of fictional what-ifs about “What if Germany won World War II?” and those kinds of things, there are some interesting books there.  But then to take it to that extreme with spirituality and how you represent that, that’s kind of how this started to come into fruition.  I started off with one question about beauty and it led to this whole question about representation and spirituality.

Demeter - "Mythologies"

PT:  And how are you representing that in the works?

RV:  I’m representing it by the scope and scale and how it’s being installed. The photographic images are large-scale; the video is obviously large scale and very layered.  The video will be projected on canvas but it will also be reflected through mirrors in the space so it starts to take on a theatricality and a walking into another worldliness.  And I’m adding some camp elements a little bit, not a lot, but just enough to give a sense of humor there, but then there’s also a sense that you have to take it in.  You can’t just dismiss it.  It’s not going to be one of those things where you just walk into it and go “Oh, pretty pictures,” and then walk away.  You’re going to be confronted with some other things as well.  My goal with the exhibit is that people take time to be in the environment and then to ponder these large images because we are a very puritanical society.  There are a lot of people who are not very comfortable with their bodies.  The human form is being represented pretty extensively and I think that that already puts you at a distance because anyone who would agree to show themselves like this is already elevating themselves beyond the rest because most people wouldn’t do it.  The layers and the representation will be there immediately once you walk in just because of that alone.

PT:  Blue Sky Project has always been a hotbed for cross-media collaboration and this year is no exception.  Can you tell us about your project with Katherine Mann and Shaw Pong Liu?

RV:  Ah yes, today I just had my first encounter with the tech crew.  They’ve already started reprogramming this software that will recognize body shapes and forms as they move through the space.  What’s really great about this collaboration is that it’s not just cross-disciplinary within three different art forms, a visual art form, music, and dance, but it also brings in technology and the use of technology to kind of infuse and inform all three.

The hope and goal with the imaging software program is that it uses the body and facial recognition to affect how the sound is being made within the space.  It will alter the soundscape that has been created by Shaw Pong but then the dancers will be responding to that alteration and Shaw Pong will be responding to that.  You have these layers of relationships, which is what technology does.  Technology is about building and/or defining relationships and connections and so it’s redefining those connections between a dancer and music.  It’s very interesting because they’ve pinpointed the major parts.  The computer will recognize that this is a hand, this is a wrist joint, wrist, elbow, head, knee, ankle, head tilt, whole body, right and left, based upon which sides of the body they’re on and where they’re in the diagram of the body.

This kind of a collaboration has allowed us to reinterpret what we would normally do.  Katherine’s work now has a three-dimensional quality that begs the question is it a painting or is it a sculpture.  It introduces even bigger questions.  If the music is generated via the gestures of the performers are the performers musicians?  If the composer is reacting to her own feedback in loop but she’s responding to it as the dancers is she now the choreographer?  So the hats that we wear and our roles as art makers expand greatly.  I feel as though that’s the power of having these cross-disciplinary collaborations.  It allows for the bigger questions to be asked and an expansion and redefining of the roles within the art making practices.  Which means that it’s something new, which breaks rules.  Which is something right up my alley.

Hermes - "Mythologies"

PT:  What about the performance on September 15?

RV:  September 15 is “By Nightfall All of the Migrating Souls Will Be At Peace.”  It’s ambitious even by my standards.  It’s an ambitious project using UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology and cameras and video to capture, record, and feed a performance that moves through the streets of Dayton.  So basically they’ll be individuals and groups moving on five paths through the city of Dayton to one central location and we’ll be recording it using that technology, which allows us to document and also present that information via a live feed to the central location where all the migratory groups are coming to.  So people can observe it walking and moving through the streets of Dayton and/or at the central location.  You’ve got two vantage points and hopefully this will be streamed on the web so that’s the goal is to present this information and performance in a different way.  I’m excited about that because I feel like it’s taking the scope and scale of the performance and making it really larger than life.  Also people will be following the performers through the streets with regular video cameras just to record and document as well.  So ultimately, from all this information, there will end up being a second performance piece that could really end up being something pretty amazing.

Dionysus - "Mythologies"

All three of the events mentioned in this article are free and open to the public. “Mythologies” will take place on Friday, July 20 from 6:00 – 8:00 PM at 8 North Main Street, Dayton, Ohio. “2, 3, 4,” a collaboration between Rodney Veal, Shaw Pong Liu, and Katherine Mann, will take place on August 10 at 7 pm and on August 11 at 5 & 7 pm.  All these performances will take place at 8 North Main Street, Dayton, Ohio. “By Nightfall All of the Migrating Souls Will Be At Peace” will take place in downtown Dayton on September 15 from 4 to 6pm.  The central location for the exhibition will be Tech Town at 711 East Monument Avenue, Dayton, Ohio.

Summer ART Camp at K12 Gallery/TEJAS

By Leave a Comment

For 19 years K12 Gallery has been providing the Miami Valley with summer art making experiences for all ages.  With summer art camps offered in three separate studio spaces for three age groups (K-2nd grade, 3rd-6th grade, and 7th-12th grade), students are able to explore and truly immerse themselves in the project for the week.  Each week offers a different art medium for each age group.

The newest addition to K12 Gallery is TEJAS the “Teen Educational & Joint Adult Studio”.  This 1,000 sq ft space allows teens to learn more than just the basics; it provides them with a mentorship opportunity and a chance to exhibit their work.  “When I teach a K12/TEJAS summer art camp I bring my knowledge and passion for art as well as life experiences to my students, and they in turn, inspire me.  It is a rare opportunity to grow and learn together in a completely open and creative environment,” states Rebecca Sargent, MFA, TEJAS Exhibition and Programming Coordinator.

This year, the line-up of camps has been the best yet.  Eco-friendly art, Portfolio Development, Gamers Camp, and Clay are just a few of the camps that have already taken place this summer.  Teen camp participant Alexis Geeting shared her favorite camp experience. ”My favorite camp this year has been Portfolio Development, we learned everything from drawing and painting skills to prepping and hanging a show-we even designed our own exhibition announcements!” Every year K12 Gallery/TEJAS provides quality instruction in the visual arts to hundreds of kids and teens in the Dayton area.  Our camp staff consists of working artists in the community, art teachers, and arts professionals.  The lead artist for each camp has the education and experience to offer students a unique and valuable experience in art camp.  Students are engaged and they have FUN!

In addition to creating art in the studio, students get an opportunity to visit artists at work in our community, see and explore art related spaces on daily field trips and artist talks. On Friday students get to spend time eating lunch and splashing in the fountains at Riverscape Metro Park!  The week ends with an art show and reception that celebrates the creativity and hard work each student has been involved in during the week’s camp.

Although the summer is halfway gone, K12 Gallery/TEJAS still has plenty of opportunities to get your child involved in an extraordinary experience.  Summer Art Camps run through August 10, 2012. It is not too late to sign up for a camp!  The cost of a weeklong camp is $150 for members and $225 for non-members. You can see the full schedule, pricing information and details at www.k12gallery.com or by calling 461-5149.

Summer Art Camp Schedule

K-2 Camps:

Week 6: July 23-27th 9:30am-3:30pm

“Duct, Duct, Glue”

Design and create your own costume from all kinds of materials including fabric, duct tape, paper, junk jewelry, glue and much more.  Students will have a set of designs and sketches as well as a finished costume to show at the end of camp.  Join us Friday July 27th at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Atalie Gagnet

Week 7: July 30-August 3rd 9:30am-3:30pm

“Clay Family Portraits”

Learn clay techniques including hand building and wheel throwing.  Make family heirlooms, dog bowls or cat cookie jars for your family pets .  Create a portrait of your family in a 3-D clay relief.  Use photos and other materials to collage your background and frame the entire piece.    Join us Friday August 3rd at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Ben Deeter

Week 8: August 6-10th 9:30am-3:30pm

“HandPRINTS: clay and ink”

Explore the world of printmaking!  Students will create and embellish prints in a variety of ways including sun prints, monoprinting and screenprinting.  Add painting, drawing and collage to prints to create a fantastic finished masterpiece. Students will also explore mold-making: cast your face out of plaster and sink your hands in clay to make a mold of your handprints.  Join us Friday August 10th  at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Bethany Booth

3-6 Camps:

Week 6: July 23-27th 9:30am-3:30pm

“City Shapes: Painting and Drawing”

The city is a fantastic place to explore sights, sounds and shapes.  Students will view, paint and draw buildings from a variety of locations including street-level on the side walk, inside a downtown building, several stories high and on a downtown rooftop!  Join us Friday July 20th at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Phyllis Niemeyer Miller

Week 7: July 30-August 3rd 9:30am-3:30pm

“Costume Design”

Warrior’s, fashionistas, super heroes and fairytale characters all have one thing in common…fantastic costumes!  Design and create your own costume using materials such as fabric, junk jewelry, glue, needle and thread, and other embellishments.  Walk the runway at the end of camp in our costume fashion show.  Join us Friday August 3rd at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Atalie Gagnet

Week 8: August 6-10th 9:30am-3:30pm

“Alternative Processes: Photography, Graphic Arts, Drawing & Painting”

Learn the basics of photography and graphic arts, including photoshop.  Manipulate your images to create new and exciting pieces of artwork.  Use cameras, drawing materials, paint and other materials to finish your masterpiece!  Join us Friday August 10th  at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Diana Cordero

7-12th Camps:

Week 6: July 23-27th 9:30am-3:30pm

NEW“Art of Innovation: Film”

Learn the basics of filmmaking.  Students will learn the history of film, sketch storyboards and create and edit their own group short film. Launch your film on K12’s YouTube Channel with help from fellow teen Bradley Lee (a YouTube expert!)  Friends and family are invited to view the final cut (complete with popcorn and soda) at the week’s end. This camp made possible through funding from the Ohio Arts Council.

Join us Friday July 27th at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Film Dayton & Bradley Lee

Week 7: July 30-August 3rd 9:30am-3:30pm

“Hot Glass”

Manipulate glass under a torch head to create colorfully designed beads.  Students will learn the art of “lampworking” or glass bead making.  Turn your beads into finished pieces; necklaces, bracelets, earrings or even small sculptures with wire.  Students will also learn glass fusing.

Join us Friday August 3rd at 3:00pm to celebrate the week with family, friends and refreshments!

Lead Artist: Kelly Smith & Karen Armacoft

Week 8: August 6-10th 9:30am-3:30pm

“Clay Throwing & Handbuilding”

Learn wheel throwing techniques or build on the skills you already have.  Use hand built elements, clay tools and glazes to finish your clay creations.  All clay pieces will be fired and ready to go at the end of camp.

(submitted by K12 Gallery)

The Dayton Playhouse Presents Autumn Sweet on the Big Screen

By Leave a Comment

The Dayton Playhouse announces a fundraising event of something very unique. Autumn Sweet was a play selected as a finalist in the first year of the Dayton Playhouse’ annual new play festival, FutureFest. While it did not appear in the festival that year, it was a play that was always a favorite of festival founder, John Riley. When he later got the opportunity to produce the play, written by Frank Catalano, for First Stage Productions, Riley decided to do extensive filming of the play and edit it for the screen. Riley has completed the editing of this moving drama and is allowing the Dayton Playhouse to host a screening of the film as a fundraiser. The story follows a small family with an alcoholic father, codependent mother, teenage daughter with artistic dreams and younger son with disabilities.

The screening will be at the Dayton Playhouse, 1301 E. Siebenthaler Ave, Dayton, OH 45414, on Saturday, August 4, at 7:00 p.m. There will be a suggested $10 donation to be paid at the door. Reservations are not necessary.

Riley and other actors in the play will be on hand after the screening to discuss the play and how it was developed into the film format. Refreshments and networking will follow the screening. Actors in the play include John Riley, Dodie Lockwood, Ame Clase, Jim Harworth and Micah Stock. The original play was directed by Greg Smith and the screen version was produced by John & Marty Riley.

According to Dayton Playhouse board chairman, Brian Sharp, “This is a great opportunity for us to raise funds and for our audience members to view a new play in a completely different format. We’re delighted that John has offered us this unique opportunity.”

For additional information contact the Dayton Playhouse box office at 937-424-8477.

(submitted by Dayton Playhouse)

 

Old Case Files: A Trial at the Old Courthouse (TICKET CONTEST)

By Leave a Comment

In 2011, Dayton History unveiled a new public program, Old Case Files, at the Old Court House. Old Case Files brings to life an infamous 19th century murder case through an historically accurate and engaging re-enactment of the trial, based upon the newspaper accounts and other primary source documents of the time.

Dayton History (with sponsorship of Bieser, Greer & Landis LLP, with additional support by the Dayton Bar Association) presents Old Case Files for its second year at the Old Courthouse in Downtown Dayton. This year features a dramatic presentation of the 1876 trial in which Harry Adams was accused of murdering Civil War veteran, Henry Mulharen.

The mock-trial promises to be filled with mystery, intrigue, and excitement for all those who enjoy history and a great piece of theatre! Audience members will have a chance to interact with the witnesses and some attending the show may be lucky enough to be chosen for the jury to decide Adams’ fate. You can witness this entertaining and engaging living history event on July 20-22, 27-29 and August 3-5. Friday and Saturday performances start at 7:30 pm and Sunday performances start at 3:00 pm. Admission is $10 for Dayton History members and $12 for non-members. Light food and drinks are available for purchase as is selected Museum Store merchandise.

Construction of the Old Court House began in 1847 and was completed within three years at a cost of $100,000. It is built almost entirely from a grade of locally quarried limestone nicknamed “Dayton marble.” The building was dedicated on April 16, 1850. Upon completion, the structure became the center of law and local government for Montgomery County. It was the scene of many famous, as well as infamous, trials.

For more information, please call 937.293.2841 or visit www.daytonhistory.org.

TICKET CONTEST

Dayton Most Metro has TWO PAIRS of tickets to give away, courtesy of Dayton History!  Simply fill out the form below and then in the comment section, tell us your favorite famous trial.  We’ll announce winners on Thursday July 19th after 3pm – GOOD LUCK!

CONTEST CLOSED

Congratulations to our winners:
Katie Gilding
Sandy Hoying

The Human Race Theatre Company Presents The 2012 Festival of New Musicals

By 1 Comment

Todd Lawson

(from The Human Race Theatre Company)

The Human Race Theatre Company, dedicated to the development of new musicals, is pleased to announce the three-play line-up for its 2012 Festival of New Musicals. This marks The Human Race’s fifth annual festival that showcases musicals in development, and the second year of including a new work from Encore Theater Company. Human Race Producing Artistic Director Kevin Moore has selected two musicals that are very close to his heart—Dani Girl and Red-Blooded, All-American Man. The third musical is Encore Theater Company’s production of 33MM: A Musical Exhibition. The festival will kick off with a welcome session on Friday, August 3 at 6:00 p.m. in The Loft Lobby. The productions perform in The Loft Theatre in rotating repertory over the course of the three-day festival. Audiences will have a chance to meet the writers of the shows during a discussion session on Saturday, August 4 at 12:30 p.m.

Dani Girl, a beautiful, touching and unexpectedly humorous story of a 9-year-old girl battling leukemia. Her incredible imagination takes her on a fantastical quest to get her hair back when she loses it to chemotherapy. With the help of a fellow patient, 10-year-old Marty, and her imaginary friend, Raph, she confronts Cancer and asks him, “Why?” Created by the award-winning team of Michael Kooman, music, and Christopher Dimond, book and lyrics, the show has been developed in a number of festivals, including the 2011 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival of New Musicals, the Kennedy Center and the ASCAP/Disney Musical Theatre Workshop, and during productions in Canada and Australia. Kooman and Dimond have received the much-coveted Jonathan Larson Award, and most recently became the first recipients of the Lorenz Hart Award presented by the ASCAP Foundation. “The show is a tribute to the children and families dealing with serious medical issues,” said Moore. “It is not a weepy melodrama or a bleak tragedy, but a spiritual journey accompanied by an upbeat, contemporary score that evokes feelings of hope and joy.” Dani Girl is directed by Marya Spring Cordes and music directed by Scot Woolley. The cast includes Abby E. Cates, Brendan Plate, Jamie Cordes and Katie Pees. Performances of Dani Girl are Friday, August 3 at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday, August 4 at 2:00 p.m.

Native Daytonian and Human Race alumnus Todd Lawson and his writing partner, Carter Anne McGowan, have joined with the New Orleans rock n’ roll band Cowboy Mouth (who is playing at the Downtown Dayton Revival Music Fest in September), to create Red-Blooded, All-American Man, the story of a regular guy having a pre-midlife crisis. Tucker, our main guy, has a beautiful fiancée and a good job, but he’s still not happy. His mind wanders—with the help of the rock band in his head that comments on everything he does. Unsure of his life and afraid of his future, he’s ready to throw it all away for the chance to make his dreams come true only to discover that sometimes getting everything you wish for is not as great as you imagine. Originally workshopped at the Penobscot Theatre Company’s Northern Writes New Play Festival, this “coming-of-age” musical “is sure to connect with our new musical audience,” says Moore. “And we are equally thrilled to be working with Todd Lawson again.” Lawson appeared in Three Days of Rain and The Vertical Hour—both directed by The Human Race’s late artistic director, Marsha Hanna. Red-Blooded, All-American Man is directed by Kevin Moore, music directed by Jay Brunner and vocal directed by Scott Stoney. The cast includes Todd Lawson, Amy Leigh, Paige Dobkins, Scott Stoney and Sara Mackie, with band members Jay Brunner, Allison Kelly and Kevin Anderson. Performances of Red-Blooded, All-American Man are Friday, August 3 at 10:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Encore Theater Company LogoThey say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but what about a song? Can one picture inspire a song? How about fifteen photos? In 35MM: A Musical Exhibition, each photo creates a different song completely disconnected from the other, creating fifteen different and unique moments frozen in time; a glimmer of a life unfolding, a glimpse of something happening. This stunning new multimedia musical explores a groundbreaking new concept in musical theatre. With music and lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver (composer of Disney Theatricals’ upcoming stage musical Freaky Friday) and the contemporary photography of Matthew Murphy, this intricately woven collection of stories told through song re-imagines what the modern American musical can be. 35MM: A Musical Exhibition is produced by Encore Theater Company, directed by its artistic director, David Brush, and music directed by Zachary Jordan Steele. The cast includes Elizabeth Wellman, Melissa Hall, Drew Bowen, Zachary Jordan Steele. The band includes Zachary Jordan Steele, Amy Gray, Melissa Hall, Allison Kelly and Jeremy King. Performances of 35MM: A Musical Exhibition are Saturday, August 4 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, August 5 at 2:00 p.m.

The 2012 Festival of New Musicals is sponsored by the 25th Anniversary Fund, The Producers’ Circle and a grant from The Dramatists Guild of America.  SEE ENTIRE FESTIVAL SCHEDULE CALENDAR

All performances are at the Metropolitan Art Center’s Loft Theatre, located at 126 North Main Street in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door for each production and are available online at www.humanracetheatre.org or by calling Ticket Center Stage at (937) 228-3630, and in person at the Schuster Center box office.

 

DVAC presents 21st Annual Open Members’ Show: No Borders

By Leave a Comment

Edd McGatha, Among Us, 2012, inkjet print

The Dayton Visual Arts Center (DVAC) presents the 21st Annual Open Members’ Show: No Borders. Over 170 artist members (including Kollar Anderson, whose work was featured on DMM a couple years ago) will be represented by one work of art each in this exhibition that celebrates the Dayton Region’s diverse community of visual artists.  The opening reception is Friday July 13th 5-8pm and the exhibit runs through August 18th, with a Gallery Talk on Friday August 3rd.

This year’s theme is No Borders, a title that implies far-reaching concepts and out-of-the-box thinking. DVAC hopes this theme will encourage their member artists to delve deeply into their work to explore new ideas that are relevant and complex, reflective of contemporary art-making practices and that push the boundaries of creative thought and discovery.

John Emery, Mackenzie Nor’west, 2012, watercolor construction

While the show is open to all members, it is juried for $1,000 in prizes, including The Lombard Prize for best interpretation of the theme. Charlotte Gordon will be the prize juror. She is currently the Curator of the Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio. Presentation of awards will take place at DVAC’s Annual Meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 21.

DVAC is located at 118 N. Jefferson Street in Downtown Dayton.  Gallery hours are 11am-6pm Tuesday through Saturday.

UPDATE (7/17/2012 2:12pm)

The winners of the DVAC 21st Annual Open Members’ Show have been announced:

Lombard Award–Best Interpretation of the Theme

Joseph Karlovec (Centerville), Round Up, 2011, xylene transfer collage

Awards of Distinction

Mark Martel (Oakwood), Portal, 2007, oil on board

Daniel McInnis (St. Marys), Clay, 2010, 2010, chromogenic print

Sherraid Scott (Yellow Springs), Broken Border, 2012, lithograph from stone

Bruce Soifer (Dayton), Of Heaven and Earth, 2011, archival pigment print

Awards of Merit

Jon Barlow Hudson (Yellow Springs), Continuum Uncarved Block XXI:

Mountain, 2012, New Hampshire granite

Scott Dooley (Springfield), Industrial Amphorae, 2009, ceramic

Christina Pereyma (Troy), Remnant, 2012, satin

Stephanie Slowinski (Dayton), Untitled, 2012, charcoal

Andy Snow (Dayton), Dancing Soul, 2011, archival inkjet print

Sharon Stolzenberger (Kettering), New Horizons, 2012, watercolor

Juror’s Statement

This is the first time I have had the opportunity to jury the DVAC Annual Members’ Show. It proved to be a task both gratifying and daunting. This gallery is filled with the creativity and talent of 172 area artists whose originality, quality, and craftsmanship are something to celebrate. I am glad I had the occasion to get lost in every object here.  No Borders is an appropriate theme, as the daily news is filled with border disputes—political, geographical, emotional, and physical. The interpretations of this theme are vast and varied. There are literal interpretations found in Joseph Karlovec’s Round Up and Sherraid Scott’s Broken Border. Christina Pereyma’s Remnant questions interior/exterior borders in the way that the architectural lines outside are continued and repeated in yellow satin hanging just inside the window.

Amy Kollar Anderson’s Map of Ilak transports you to a place of the unfamiliar, while Barb Weinert-McBee takes you back to the tenderly familiar. Ed Charney’s and Bruce Soifer’s landscapes explore the borders of earth and sky. The craftsmanship in the sculpture, glass and ceramics is exceptional. The patterning in Susan Cannon’s glass vessel Diaspora implies different borders all together. The members in this exhibition reflect vitality, ability, and a sense of wonder in their art. The exhibition offers a rich visual experience, adding depth and breadth to the entire Dayton community.

—Charlotte Gordon

Curator, Springfield Museum of Art

 

Glenna Jennings: An Artistic Conversation

By Leave a Comment

Glenna Jennings

Editor’s Note: The following was written and submitted by Philip Titlebaum – an intern with Blue Sky Project)

Glenna Jennings was born in Alpine, CA, where she navigated a landscape of monster trucks, chaparral and soccer moms that still informs much of her practice.

She holds BAs in Photography (Art Center College of Design), English-Journalism (Pepperdine University) and Spanish (Pepperdine University). She received her MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego in 2010. Before joining the faculty at The University of Dayton, Jennings served as the U.S. director of the Geneva-Los Angeles based art collective compactspace, where she curated dozens of shows with emerging and established artists and faculty from Southern California art programs, including CalArts, USC, UCSD, UCLA, Art Center College of Design and Otis.

Jennings work includes photography, writing, video and curating, and she has exhibited throughout the U.S., Europe and Mexico. Her work was recently included in the 2010 California Biennial and resides in multiple public and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the Winda Cultural Center in Kielce, Poland. Jennings joined the faculty of the University of Dayton’s Department of Visual Arts in 2011.

Serbian mothers, two-buck chuck and taco shop fare collide in Glenna Jennings’ ongoing series At Table, a collection of photographs that investigate and celebrate the everyday act of gathering to eat and drink. Since 2006, Jennings has been documenting her encounters with various social groups throughout the U.S., Europe and Mexico. She turns her lens on a world in which the formalities of the mundane manifest in the common act of food and beverage consumption, portraying the everyday as dramatic spectacle.

For the current installation of the project, Jennings has created a series of wallpapers inspired by Kitsch, popular culture and historical pattern-making. These photo-based designs house her imagery in its own micro-universe, evoking the underlying domesticity, humor and reverence inherent to the At Table experience.

At Table: Rachel's 40th (La Mesa, CA)

At Table is currently on display at the Blue Sky Gallery located at 33 North Main Street, Dayton, Ohio. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Glenna Jennings and find out a little bit more about her work and experiences.

Philip Titlebaum: How did you get involved with Blue Sky Project?

Glenna Jennings: This past Spring, I met Blue Sky co-creator Peter Benkendorf and he invited me to become part of the Blue Sky community as a collaborating artist. He and artistic director Rodney Veal were very receptive to my ideas and we were off and running! I was impressed by the scope of Blue Sky’s mission and the quality of work produced by its many resident artists over the years. The summer so far in Dayton has been a productive blast! I had the chance to meet and work alongside the amazing artist Katherine Mann and to meet so many like-minded members of the Dayton community. Blue Sky is unique to the other art organizations I have worked with on the West Coast in its generosity and community spirit. I look forward to seeing it grow!

PT: What inspired you to begin your At Table series?

At Table: The Californians, shown on I Mangiatori II (Robert eats.)

GJ: First of all, I love to eat and drink, preferably while seated! However, much of the imagery is not solely about the act of consuming food or beverages. It is loaded with other cultural artifacts and gestures, from beauty products and party favors to Soviet Kitsch and orthodox iconography. The images are really about spaces of common ground and physical engagement. I switched from a film-based to a mainly digital practice in 2006 and the quality and quantity of my imagery changed a great deal. I had been shooting a lot of medium and large format work during my BFA days at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and (under the constraints of that institution) was very focused on results. The economy of the digital process loosened me up and allowed the images to flow. I became a better editor in that process, as the dramatic moments I cull from hundreds of shots of friends and family are fairly rare – I generally get about 5-12 ‘usable’ images per year. Therefore, what started as a side project to adapt my process has become a lifelong quest for dramatic everyday moments.

Of course, most folks don’t like to be photographed while shoving food in their mouths or indulging in cheap wine, so I had to “shoot” my subjects into submission. At that time, I had been doing some commercial work in Los Angeles and I was extremely turned off by the standard requests to make models skinnier and skin smoother. However, there is still a mode of objectification inherent in the At Table process. Most of my subjects are not thrilled with how they come out in the photos, but they are willing participants who later revel in the results (except for my mother – she still hates the photos of her!). It is perhaps cliché to position the photograph as a receptacle of personal memory, and equally over-academic to stake its legitimacy solely in cultural documentation. But these images are both, and I am not afraid to say I find their drama and chaos beautiful.

At Table: Mom and Mickey (Alpine, CA)

PT: What have you learned through your study of consumption?

GJ: In the 90s and early 2000s “consumption” was a catch phrase in the global art institution (if I can indeed claim one exists!). We had, among others, Andreas Gursky’s uber-photo of a 99-cent store and other spaces of consumer behavior. We also had Martin Parr’s amazing images in Think of England and other bodies of work. I gravitate toward Parr’s humor and humanism, the way he captured both the pride and humility of a nation stubbornly (and cheekily) morphing into the global economy. Of course, there are countless other influences and histories I have discovered throughout this ‘side-project.’ However, I began to see these photos more as celebrations than clinical documents of consumer behavior – so I use the term “consumption” in a more ‘tongue-in-cheek’ manner. Most of us readily acknowledge our consumer status, but “consumption,” with its plurality of definitions, is belittling and frightening. In these images it is the gestures and expressions that immediately draw my attention rather than the brand names that litter the foreground. We are the masters of the table; the goods are mere fodder.

On another note, several of the friends and family in the series are no longer with us, and their photos were deemed appropriate to be displayed at funerals and memorial ceremonies. Those events truly revealed the schism between consumption and celebration. That’s where the pathos entered. At my dear friend Fellini’s wake, I realized this personal archive could have greater significance outside the institution – it served its most important function of catharsis and remembrance while sitting on a short easel at West Hollywood’s Silver Spoon Café.

At Table: Fellini's Eve (West Hollywood, CA)

PT: What led to the decision to create wallpapers for this manifestation of the project?

GJ: The wallpapers were a delusional gift from the muses! Well, Let’s see…

Since moving to Dayton in August 2011, I have been doing research into the history of the National Cash Register, focusing on images of Patterson’s social welfare programs housed within the local NCR archive. I recently received a Peter McGrath Human Rights fellowship from the University of Dayton to more fully realize this project, which will result in a body of multi-media works that mesh archival imagery with current investigations of how we view labor and leisure from a Human Rights perspective. My studio walls are filled with Xerox copies of photos depicting various groups of laborers doing workplace calisthenics in factories and offices. I was drawn to the formal patterns in these images, to the way the bodies made sense of themselves through corporate-imposed repetition and mimicry. These faces and bodies had begun to form a wallpaper within my home, yet I would never meet, interview or know any of the subjects. That is an intense feeling for me and I am sure for many who do archival work!

The connection of that research to kitschy, celebrity-based patterns is tangential, but it was one of those exhilarating studio moments — one minute you are reading about the history of a local economy and the next you are Googling “famous people eating.” I had never made “internet art” and had a longing to do so. I basically turned a rudimentary assignment I had given in class into a personal exercise and enjoyed the results. In a conceptually simple but perceptually accurate sense, any duplicated and manipulated image can become a pattern, which is fun and eerie! Moreover, most people look pretty hilarious when they are eating, and the public loves to see celebrated figures made vulnerable.

I wanted a new context for my existing images, and at the risk of falling into gimmick, I churned out custom “appropriated” wallpapers. I am still looking into the economic and aesthetic history of wallpaper, but mostly I am having a lot of fun. Wallpaper was a good solution because it reinforced the domestic theme of the work and formally separated these charged images from the white cubes they inhabit. The representational aspect is not immediately apparent – you can’t see Betty White eating a hot dog or Mike Tyson shoving a green glob into his mouth until you get really close – and that’s what I want you to do!

At Table: Fellini's Eve and Rachel's 40th, shown on I Mangiatori I (Betty eats.)

PT: Where does the series go from here?

GJ: I’d love to wallpaper the entire state of Ohio! But in the meantime, I am turning my lens on less familiar groups of people. I have begun to document my new friends and visitors in Dayton, as well as the international students from UD’s Intensive English Program who have graciously invited me into their homes. As a newcomer, the At Table series offers me the opportunity to meet new people and continue my research into Dayton’s history. In an “immigrant friendly” city, I should expect to find a great deal of diversity in our everyday operations, but this is not always the case. As a Spanish speaker, I am hoping to forge a relationship with our Latino community and present imagery of diverse groups of Daytonians who don’t often meet around the table. I am available most any time if you have room for a voyeur/guest! This new work will debut at Blue Sky in November, just in time for the holiday season.

PT: What is the best way for people to get a hold of you if they would like to be a part of the project?

GJ: Just send an email to my UD account: [email protected] — and let me know what I should bring!

PT: Could you tell me about your upcoming photo project for Cityfolk?

GJ: The Cityfolk project came along as I was in the midst of researching the ethnographic nature of Dayton for a curatorial project with The Dayton International Peace Museum to open in 2013. Jean Berry invited me to take part in the Cityfolk initiative to bring large-scale photos to public spaces throughout Dayton. As part of my project, I will be running a photo-booth on Courthouse Square during Urban Nights to make portraits of all and any Daytonians who stop by. This event is also supported by the “Dayton, Ohio: You Are Here!” project, initiated by Terry Welker. The final product – large scale portraits – will debut on various city walls this coming winter. It is really exciting to work with yet another organization that supports art and diversity! Oh, and there will be wallpaper!

PT: What is your other work like?

GJ: I have an interesting personal relation to the arts – the first day of my BFA program (which would be my 3rd Bachelor’s) was 9/11/2001. I had left a career teaching English as a Second language to follow this art dream into a cultural, physical and economic explosion. There was a lot of fantasy and escapism in my early work, but it was full of passion and a lusty pursuit of the relevance of Kitsch to a society in the midst of a major representational wake-up call. I began to form lasting professional relationships with other artists, which mainly resulted in compactspace, a Geneve-LA based art collective and gallery that had a nice 6-year run in downtown Los Angeles. That experience fueled my curatorial work and inspires me to stretch myself as thin as possible – after all, there is no such thing as a “solo show” – I love working with other artists and seeing how disparate works create new narratives.

On my first day of Grad School at The University of California San Diego, my father passed away. This devastation was of a far more personal nature, and I had a hard time making new work. The only way through the grief was to create around, in, over and about his death. Inheritance, a collection of works that includes portraits of various women from my life eating and drinking around a table with my father’s prized pistol, was the result of this experience. (My dad left me, a leftie, 17 guns, most of which I still intend to sell to fund art.)

My work since then has been eclectic in terms of subject matter – a conflation of Doestoevsky’s Crime and Punishment with high school cheerleading, the aesthetics of Place and Space in a small Mexican-American border town, and now NCR. What unites these disparate topics is a passionate need to organize chaos while celebrating disorder. Those age-old binaries – Fact/Ficion, History/Memory, Life/Death – they’re all in there! It is probably not surprising that Ira Glass is a personal hero of mine.

PT: Anything else?

GJ: Why, yes! I am currently creating a course titled “Photography as Social Practice.” We will look at the legacy of photo-journalism from a traditional academic standpoint, but we will also collaborate with other community-based groups, including Blue Sky, Cityfolk, The Rivers Institute and The Center for the Environment and Sustainability to locate and/or create projects of Art Activism within our community. I aim to get students of multiple disciplines involved in this initiative. We will get out there and pixilate the Dayton map with possibilities. This is an opportunity for the UD students to get beyond the distant rhetoric they observed this past fall with Occupy Dayton. Basically, I aim to keep that dream alive through an ‘insurgency’ of hope, help and community empowerment.

Blue Sky Project is a summer experience that empowers professional artists from around the world and local youth to collaborate and build community through the creation of ambitious works of contemporary art and performance. Blue Sky also maintains a gallery at 33 North Main Street, Dayton, Ohio where Jennings work is on display through July 27.

 

Dayton Playhouse Presents FutureFest 2012

By 2 Comments

FutureFest, an annual festival of previously unproduced plays sponsored by the Dayton Playhouse, will take place July 27-29. This event is nationally recognized as a premier event in the playwrighting community and is the largest effort of its kind sponsored by a community theatre.

“Each year we read hundreds of previously unproduced plays submitted by writers in the United States and often around the world,” said Brian Sharp, chairman of the Dayton Playhouse board. “We narrow the selection to the top 6 plays and we bring those playwrights to Dayton for an in-depth weekend. The plays are produced by Dayton Playhouse volunteers, half as staged readings and half as fully staged productions during the weekend. After each presentation, the writing is critiqued by professional adjudicators from major theatre communities across the country. All of this is shared by our audience members, who also participate in the adjudication. The weekend also includes lots of social interaction with playwrights, actors and adjudicators and makes for a very stimulating theatre event.”

This year’s finalists include:

A Political Woman by Joel Fishbane of Quebec, Canada, also a finalist in 2010 for Short Story Long. This play will be directed by Cynthia Karns and will be fully staged at 8 p.m. on Friday.

As a debate rages in the Canadian parliament over universal suffrage, young Maggie Shand slowly becomes instrumental to her husband’s political life. But she soon realizes that her newfound political influence has a price – one she may not be willing to pay. Inspired by the play “what every woman knows” by J.M. Barrie, a political woman is at once a historical comedy and an exploration of a crucial time in gender politics with echoes that are all too relevant in the modern day.

Provenance by Daniel J. Weber of Great Neck, New York. This play will be a staged reading Saturday at 10 a.m. and will be directed by David Shough.

Provenance – lives and breathes in the world of wine. Yet it is emphatically not a play about wine. Rather, the cultivation of wine serves as an overarching metaphor for the history of change and growth that affects each character on stage. Like the mysterious champagne in question, four characters are trapped inside their own personal histories. The only way out: personal reinvention. Change becomes an act of survival. But how far will a person bend the truth to escape his or her past? What are the consequences? In this explosive examination of history and identity, secrets, like lies, are impossible to contain.

Nureyev’s Eyes written by David Rush of Murphysboro, Illinois whose play Estelle Singerman was the festival winner in 2006. This play will be directed by Annie Pesch and will be a staged reading 3 p.m. on Saturday.

During the 70s, Jamie Wyeth (son of Andrew) painted a series of works of Rudolf Nureyev, the dancer. The play examines what their relationship may have been like, how they passed through good and bad times and ultimately changed each other.

Curve by Sam Havens of Houston, Texas. This play will be directed by Jim Lockwood and will be fully staged on Saturday at 8 p.m.

In this witty, provocative play about truth and illusion, unrelenting rain pours down outside the Connecticut home of Dakin Abernathy. Inside, Dakin and his neighbor, Ted Mueller, engage in a verbal joust where nothing is as it seems. Or is it? Dakin, a noted film noir director, accuses Ted of having killed his own wife. Ted protests, yet as morning spins into afternoon and a thunderous evening, he begins to believe that he might, indeed, be a murderer. Dakin’s wife, Angela, complicates events with her flaky personality, and their daughter, Lana Veronica, comes home for the weekend saying she is in trouble with the law. Events escalate and secrets are revealed until the play itself suggests one of Dakin’s film noir classics, complete with dark music, ominous lighting and swirling fog.

Excavation by Robert Barron of Newburgh, NY. This play will be directed by Nancy Campbell and will be a staged reading at 10 a.m. on Sunday

Excavation – is a journey into the past to unlock the future. A widowed father who works as a security guard at New York’s American Museum of Natural History struggles to reach his mute seven year old son, who is fading away from grief over his mother’s death. Meanwhile, a parallel story takes place on the Southwest corner of England in the 1800s, as one of the first paleontologists, Mary Anning, struggles for her own survival as she scours the shorelines for whispers and vestiges of worlds gone by…

This Rough Magic written by Richard Manley of New York City, who was a festival finalist in 2009 for his play Quietus. The play will be directed by Gayle Smith and will be fully staged at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

I believe that Americans are by and large a lonely people. Our productivity and medication and social media notwithstanding, many of us struggle to make sense of things, to find a sustainable balance between melancholy and hope. Joy, when it comes, is often momentary, and must be savored. In my work, I celebrate those who fight to maintain equilibrium. This Rough Magic takes place a few years from now, when overcoming loneliness and feeling loved are no less of a problem, but when technology offers more solutions to those who can afford them.

Adjudicators for FutureFest 2012 are returnees David Finkle, writer for the Huffington Post; playwright and dramaturg at Chicago Dramatists, Rob Koon; Helen Sneed, president Helen Sneed Consulting; and Eleanore Speert, past publications director at Dramatists Play Service, Inc. They will be joined by playwright and Ohio regional representative to the Dramatists Guild, Faye Sholiton, whose play The Interview won the festival in 1997.

Weekend passes for the entire festival are available for $95. Tickets to individual performances are $18. All tickets may be purchased at www.daytonplayhouse.org, or by calling the Dayton Playhouse box office at 937-424-8477. The Dayton Playhouse is located at, 1301 E. Siebenthaler Ave., Dayton, OH 45414.

(submitted by Dayton Playhouse)

 

Volunteer Box Office Coordinator Wanted

By Leave a Comment

The Dayton Playhouse is seeking a volunteer Box Office Coordinator. The ideal candidate will possess basic computer skills, good telephone skills and an understanding of Microsoft Word. This volunteer candidate would work at The Playhouse Box Office on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2:00 pm until 5:00 pm with some additional hours on opening nights of shows. This is a perfect position for someone with a love for the theatre arts. The Coordinator will receive season tickets for all shows.

Interested candidates should contact the Playhouse box office via email at [email protected] for consideration.

Bake A Difference

By Leave a Comment

Springboro’s Cooks’ Ware will host their second annual Bake-Off this Sat, July 14th to benefit Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.  Founded by parents inspired by their son Liam’s battle with cancer, they were shocked to learn that the main reason over 25% of kids diagnosed with cancer do not survive is because of a lack of effective therapies. And the reason for the lack of therapies was very simple: lack of funding. They pledged to support the development of new and better treatments by giving people a simple way to get involved

 

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is not about one child or one type of pediatric cancer. It is about changing the facts of pediatric cancer for the better, forever. Important statistics to know:

 

  • Cancer claims the lives of more children annually than any other disease.
  • 46 children per day are diagnosed with cancer totaling nearly 13,000 new cases per year.
  • Cure rates have improved dramatically and advances in childhood cancer research has provided seminal insights into the cancer problem in general. Today, 4 out 5 children diagnosed with cancer can be cured.
  • While long-term goals for the pediatric cancer community will focus on securing more federal funding for childhood cancer research (more than the 1-2% of the National Cancer Institute budget that is current expended), philanthropy plays a critical and essential role in the ongoing battle against childhood cancer. 

Want to help?  Call the store to register and then bake up your favorite sweet treats and donate them to the big sale on Sat, July 14th at the Settler’s Walk store. If you think you make the best cookies or cupcakes enter your sweets into the Bake Off by registering by Thurs, July 12th.

 

Bake Off Guidelines: 
Categories are Cookies and Cupcakes: enter just one or both categories.
Reserve 3 servings of each entry for the judges, you may package and donate the remaining servings from your recipe for the bake sale that benefit Cookies For Kids Cancer.
Drop off your entry no later than 8pm. Fri, July 13th at Cooks’ Wares.  Judging will begin at 1pm on Sat, July 14th

Contest winners names and recipes will be published in Cooks’ Wares newsletter and prizes will be awarded in each category.

If you’re not a baker, you can still support this event by shopping the Bake Sale on Sat, July 14th.

Fifth Street Brewpub Taps its 250th Member in Only 10 Days!

By 1 Comment

Fifth Street Brewpub’s membership drive is off to a blazing start. Ohio’s first cooperatively owned brewpub, which will open in the historic inner east district of downtown Dayton, signed its first member via its website  on June 26th and its 250th less than two weeks later. The community-minded, volunteer group that founded the brewpub has created a co-op business model that offers one share per person for $100 each. All owners, including the founders, own an equal share of the brewpub.

“Two hundred member-owners in 10 days with minimal promotion shows that beer lovers like the co-op concept and the idea of owning their own brewpub,” said Maureen Barry, Membership Director, Fifth Street Brewpub. “This is an idea that is sweeping the nation. Based on this pace of 20 new members per day, we have upgraded our goal to 500 members by July 31.”

All member-owners that join by July 31 are considered “Charter Members” and receive perks including 20-ounce pours for the price of a 16-ounce beer. In addition, their membership card will say Charter Member and they will have their names memorialized on the walls of the pub.

The 200th member of Fifth Street Brewpub is Erin Flanagan, an associate professor in the Department of English Language and Literatures at Wright State University. “I grew up in the 1980s watching the television show Cheers. Owning this neighborhood bar is like a dream come true,” said Flanagan, who recruited four other member-owners including her sister and brother-in-law who live in California. Flanagan and her sister, Kelly Hansen, also purchased a gift membership for their father, Ken Flanagan who lives in Winter, Wisconsin.

Gift memberships have been very popular and the Fifth Street Brewpub Board of Directors expects that to continue. Brian Young, Founding Board Member says, “Everyone has a friend or family member that loves beer. Buy a membership for them as a gift and since we are one of only four co-op brewpubs in the country, there’s a very good chance it will be the most unique gift they have ever received.”

The July charter membership drive includes two beer socials and marketing via Facebook, Twitter and the Fifth Street website. Buy personal or gift memberships at www.FifthStreet.coop. You may either download an application to mail with a check, or use PayPal to buy a membership online. You can also purchase a membership in person by attending a beer social July 14 from 3-5 pm or July 21 from 6-8 pm at 1600 East Fifth Street, Dayton.

To compliment the membership drive, Fifth Street Brewpub also has an investor’s initiative, with investment levels as low as $1000. Higher levels of $3000 and $5000 are available and bring other benefits, including naming your own beer at the $5000 plus level.

Fifth Street Co-op was formed in June by a group of community-minded beer lovers to open the Fifth Street Brewpub in the St. Anne’s Hill historic district of Dayton to beautify the neighborhood, provide jobs and create a friendly restaurant and pub. Become a member-owner now or learn more at www.FifthStreet.coop.

VTA’s Cool Films Series

By Leave a Comment

Each summer, Victoria Theatre Association takes a break from live theatre and for a few weeks features the silver screen with their Cool Films Series at the Victoria Theatre. This season they have a new line-up of eight old classics that many will enjoy seeing again or for the first time.  Tickets are $5 a piece, or you can get a 10-ticket pass book for $28 at Ticket Center Stage.   And Dayton Most Metro has FOUR PASSBOOKS to give away, courtesy of Victoria Theatre Association!  Just fill out the form at the bottom of this article and we’ll draw winners on Tuesday July 10 at 3pm.

Here is the complete list of films and showtimes:

Birdman of AlcatrazBirdman of Alcatraz

Friday 7/6 at 7:30pm | Saturday 7/7 at 7:30pm | Sunday 7/8 at 3:00pm

When you have a life sentence in prison, you probably don’t have much hope of pursuing a career, much less of becoming a leader in a field you didn’t pick up until after your sentence. This fascinating portrayal by Burt Lancaster will give you the inside story on the “Birdman of Alcatraz” and how he managed to achieve fame from behind bars.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4zlb22lfVM’]

 

CleopatraCleopatra

Friday 7/13 at 7:30pm | Saturday 7/14 at 7:30pm | Sunday 7/15 at 3:00pm

Winner of multiple Academy Awards®, this film transports you back in time to watch the infamous Queen of Egypt Cleopatra (played by the equally infamous Elizabeth Taylor), as she schemes and seduces to keep her iron grip on the throne.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGDyZHlHklo’]

 

The Great EscapeThe Great Escape

Friday 7/20 at 7:30pm | Saturday 7/21 at 7:30pm | Sunday 7/22 at 3:00pm

Come see this war drama about the escape plans of a group of POWs in WWII–you will be amazed by the real life story (and exhilarated by all of Steve McQueen’s awesome motorcycle chase scenes)!

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkwmIDx9RwQ’]

 

Guess Who's Coming to DinnerGuess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Friday 7/27 at 7:30pm | Saturday 7/28 at 7:30pm | Sunday 7/29 at 3:00pm

When Joey brings her new African American fiancé, John (Sidney Poitier), to her 1960s hometown, they make a whole lot of waves. A political statement at the time, this film promotes respect and love between races and won director Stanley Kramer a United Nations Award.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a56FnhtuGI’]

 

Murder on the Orient ExpressMurder on the Orient Express

Friday 8/3 at 7:30pm | Saturday 8/4 at 7:30pm | Sunday 8/5 at 3:00pm

Agatha Christie’s best-selling novel is brought to life flawlessly. This is a star-studded film, with Academy Award® nominees Albert Finney and John Gielgud and Academy Award® winner Ingrid Bergman as the leads in this murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTYA01glGqo’]

 

Mary PoppinsMary Poppins

Friday 8/10 at 7:30pm | Saturday 8/11 at 7:30pm | Sunday 8/12 at 3:00pm

From the moment Julie Andrews floats in on those changing winds, you can’t help but become completely and totally entranced with her supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ways! Come see the astonishing film version of the magical tale before you see the Broadway musical this season at the Schuster Center!

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTI-GEtgZYI’]

 

The Godfather TrilogyThe Godfather Trilogy

Friday 8/17 at 7:30pm | Saturday 8/18 at 7:30pm | Sunday 8/19 at 3:00pm

THE GODFATHER August 17

Winner of over 20 various prestigious awards (including seven Academy Awards®), this classic film about the New York-Italian Mafia and their need for revenge is 175 minutes of mesmerizing cinema work you won’t want to miss on our big screen.

THE GODFATHER PART II August 18

This continuation of THE GODFATHER is the first sequel to win an Academy Award® for Best Picture. Need we say more?

THE GODFATHER PART III August 19

Michael Corleone wants redemption, but the Mafia is a force to be reckoned with, and they aren’t letting Michael go without a fight.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAfWMr26KQk’]

 

Calamity JaneCalamity Jane

Friday 8/24 at 7:30pm | Saturday 8/25 at 7:30pm | Sunday 8/26 at 3:00pm

Come see sweet little Doris Day transform into a rootin’, tootin’, shootin’ cowgirl in this classic musical tale full of comedy and romance in the Old West!

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXSkVK4sFLQ’]

 

 TICKET CONTEST

DMM has FOUR PASSBOOKS to give away ($28 value courtesy of Victoria Theatre Association)!  Simply fill out the form below and then comment below telling us which of these films you’re looking forward to seeing.  We’ll draw four random winners on Tuesday July 10 at 3pm – GOOD LUCK!

CONTEST CLOSED

Congratulations to our winners!

Rebecca Woodward
Teri Lussier
Ben Adams
Robert Heckman

Springboro’s first Cash Mob is July 11

By Leave a Comment

 The Springboro Chamber of Commerce announced it will host southwest Ohio’s first registered Cash Mob on Wednesday July 11.This Cash Mob concept started in Cleveland Ohio, a new trend of “buy local” which is now sweeping the nation in small town and cities like Springboro, as well as some larger cities.  Downtown Dayton hosted a cash mob in the Oregon District this past March that was quite successful.

This is how it works – an organized group of business owners and members of the community, who have all pledged to spend at least $20, gather in the parking lot at the designated date and time, and then “mob” the selected local business. The majority of Chamber membership is made up of small businesses in Springboro, and the surrounding communities; the Springboro Chamber of Commerce is looking for “mobbers” who have a vested interest in saving the mom & pop stores and making an investment of their time and cash on a specific day, to show their support.

The first Cash Mob location will be the Springboro IGA on Wednesday July 11 between 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. – it was chosen by the Chamber Cash Mob committee because it is a locally owned and operated retail location with ample parking, great visibility, and multiple items under $20 to purchase for men and women. Located at 15 North Main Street in the heart of Springboro, the IGA, a family tradition and local staple in town for over 60 years, meets all the criteria for a Cash Mob and also has shown great community spirit and continually gives back to the community.

The first 100 “mobbers” will receive a FREE green Bandana to wear during the Cash Mob. The Springboro Community Assistance Center will also be present to receive donated goods if people wish to donate their purchases. The Springboro IGA will donate $2 for every $20 spent during the Cash Mob to the Assistance Center to show their continued support. Join in the fun of Springboro’s first Cash Mob on July 11!

For more information about this Cash Mob, or future Cash Mobs, call the Springboro Chamber office at 937-748-0074.

Ghostlight + Fressa + Thistle = Urban Dinner Show

By Leave a Comment

Attention Dining Daytonians! There is a new summer dining option in the neighborhood this summer!  Ghostlight Coffee & Fressa Food Truck, along with Thistle Confections, are bringing you some delicious meals on Saturday nights from 7-10pm beginning July 14th (plus a preview this Friday!)

Ghostlight Coffee normally closes at 7pm, but when there are special events such as music or story slams, the coffeehouse stays open as late as 10pm.  They’ve been filling up their summer schedule with lot’s of great entertainment options, so they’ll be having AfterHours most Fridays and Saturdays. FRESSA Food Truck will be bringing their tasty menu to the corner of Wayne Ave. & Clover St. on Saturday evenings.
The food truck will be doing a ‘trial run’ at Ghostlight this week for FIRST FRIDAY!  You can  be one of the first to try out their new summer menu!  Ghostlight Coffee will have their full menu of iced beverages, including a 24hr. Iced Cold Brew Guatemalan Coffee, Iced Lattes (new Thai Coffee flavor!), Handmade Artisan Sodas (perhaps try Ginger Passionfruit) and a full line of Iced Rishi Teas.  Thistle Confections will be on hand to satisfy that sweet tooth…every day a different tasty option!
Customers will be able to sit inside Ghostlight for the musical performances, but also can dine “Al Fresco” on the new patio, with seating for 14 (planters by local garden expert “Busy Bee Gardening”).
JULY Dates:
First Friday (July 6) – Chicago Singer/Songwriter Rachel McClusky (song featured in Disney Film).  FREE (tips for musicians always welcome)
Sat, July 14 – Beast Friends Forever (featuring former member of Panic! At The Disco). $3 Cover for inside seating.  Patio seating no charge.
Sat, July 21 – The Fair & Square Band.(folk, acoustic rock, Americana). FREE (tips for musicians always welcome)
Sat, July 28 – The Blue Heron Trio (cocktail hour jazz & quiet stylish pop) FREE (tips for musicians always welcome)

The New Summer Menu from FRESSA:


Grilled cheese with roasted red pepper jam $6
Thai pb&p  w/ peanut butter, pickles, cilantro, carrot and suracha vinaigrette  $5
Gazpacho  w/ avocado and cilantro $3
Fressa Burger: 6oz ground chuck, lettuce, tomato, ketchup and sweet mustard $7
Grilled corn on the cob w/ hot chili honey butter and cotija cheese $3
Truck made chips $2- Salt and pepper chips or add BBQ seasoning
Fresh fruit Salad -Watermelon cantaloupe salad with basil sugar $2