Sunday April 28, 2024 
Highlight Acting Troupe Presents Making God Laugh
Come enjoy a story of the family that puts the fun in disFUNctional! Highlight Acting Troupe in Brunswick presents “Making God Laugh” which follows one typical American family over the course of thirty years’ worth of holidays. Starting in 1980, Ruthie and Bill’s grown children — a priest, an aspiring actress, and a former football star — all return home, where we learn of their plans and dreams as they embark on their adult lives. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Co-Directed by Robin Dickinson-Sawyer & Paula Hoffay. Performance Dates: Friday & Saturday, Oct. 11 & 12 at 7:30pm and Sunday, Oct 13 at 2pm. For reservations to performances being held at The Brunswick Grange please call 518-237-6936
Sand Lake Center for the Arts presents the play Church and State-Final Weekend
Caption: The Senator, Charles Whitmore (played by Paul Murphy) contemplates if he will win reelection. What has he done? At what price will he pay? Photo by Adam Wilson-Hwang.
Circle Theatre Players presents Church & State written by Jason Odell Williams and directed by Patrick White. Church & State is a fast-paced drama about faith, politics and “The Twitter”. It’s three days before Charles Whitmore’s Senate re-election and he’s decided to tell the public exactly what’s on his mind: no filter. What could possibly go wrong? Performance dates are October 10,11,12 at 8 pm and October 13th at 2:30 pm. Tickets are $18 Adults, $10 under the age of 18. For prepaid reservations go to www.slca-ctp.org or call the office at 518-674-2007. Sand Lake Center for the Arts is located at 2880 NY 43, Averill Park, New York, 12018. The building is handicap accessible and has ample parking.
Call for Artists
The Valley Falls United Methodist Church is seeking artists to exhibit their work in the 4th Annual Fine Art Show on Saturday, November 9, 2019. Visit http://www.valleyfallsunitedmethodist.com, email the show committee at vfumfinearts@nullgmail.com, or contact Jocelyn Cole at 518-753-2035 for an application form, show rules, and information. Application deadline is October 19, 2019.
A Musical Tribute to Music Legend, Bill Spence at Sand Lake Center for the Arts
Sand Lake Center for the Arts on Oct.19th brings you a very special night of music to honor the memory of Bill Spence, a master of the hammered dulcimer, and fixture in traditional music circles. He passed away in February of this year at the age of 78. We are proud and pleased to bring to you an overview of the music Bill loved and filled his life with. George Wilson and Toby Stover who, since 1970 and under Bill’s leadership, made up Fennig’s All-Star String Band.They will be joined on our stage by musicians John Kirk and Trish Miller, Roger Mock, Howard Jack, Phil Spoor, Jack Hume, and Peter Blue, as they help celebrate this wonderful musician’s life and work. Please join us for this special concert. Prepaid tickets are $18 Adults, $10 under the age of 18. Located at 2880, Averill Park, NY 12018. The building is handicap accessible and has ample parking.
A Doll’s House, Part 2
By Lucas Hnath and directed by Joseph Fava. October 11, 12, 13 and 16 thru 20. Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm, Wednesday & Thursday at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 2:30 pm. Schenectady Civic Players, 12 S. Church St., Schenectady. $20. 518-382-2081 or www.civicplayers.org.
Cohoes Music Hall Events
October 4: Artie Lange Night of Comedy / October 5: Haunted History of Cohoes Music Hall / October 6: Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan / October 9: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band / October 10: Melvin Seals & JGC featuring John Kadlecik / October 11: Dark Blue Sea presented by Synergia Dance Project / October 12: Marco Benevento / October 17 to November 3: Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and more at Cohoes Music Hall, 58 Remsen Street, Cohoes NY 12047 www.thecohoesmusichall.org
Premier At The Arts Center Of Troy
Setting: An apartment building in New York City in 1985 before iPads, Cell Phones and Netflix. A blizzard hits NYC taking out all forms of wired communication. No TV, no radio, no telephone and no- *gasp* – cable that you just paid $15.95 for! Stranded by the blizzard and with little to do to amuse themselves, Frank and Marjorie Belenchine, a married couple, resort to eavesdropping on the couple downstairs through the register vent in the floor of their NYC walk-up apartment building. Hilarity, thieving and murder ensue in this madcap two-act comedic farce written by Michael C. Mensching and directed by Michael McDermott, as the action progresses and builds floor-to-floor in the overlapping flats of the apartment building. As each higher floor hears more and more of the jumbled conversations all types of antics breaks lose with typical 80’s icons toga parties, Bill Cosby, big hair and Bruce Jenner all having a part in making you laugh. The Register had a debut as a one-act play during the Playwright’s Showcase at Albany Civic Theater in 2018, this fully staged local premiere will be produced by Troy Civic Theater, October 10, 11, 12,and 13 at the Arts Center of the Capital District under the direction and design of Michael McDermott. Performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30, Sunday at 2:00. Tickets available at https://tinyurl.com/TheRegisterTCT.
Adirondack Fiddlers
New style and Old Tyme Fiddling, Adirondack Fiddlers, Sunday October 13th 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm.
American Legion Hall, Clancy St. Schuylerville, NY
All fiddlers and musicians young and old and Public welcome. Round and square dancing. Food Available.
For more information call (518) 274-6817
“Pride of America” A Musical Tribute To Our Nation’s Veterans
Presented by The Memorial Concert Band of Colonie
October 16, 2019, 7:30 pm, Colonie Central High School – Mark Cornell Audiorium
Please join us October 16, 2019 at Colonie High School 7:30pm for a free musical tribute to our nation’s Veterans. From ‘Over There!’, ‘Armed Forces March’ to ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’, This is the last local performance before the Memorial Concert Band performs at Carnegie Hall on Veteran’s Day November 11, 2019. Veteran’s and Active Duty personnel along with family and friends and the general public are invited to this exciting concert.
Dramatic Tours Recapture Harrowing Night at Cherry Hill
On the evenings of October 16, 17, 18, 19 and October 23, 24, 25, and 26, Historic Cherry Hill will present a dramatic tour reliving the infamous 1827 murder that occurred at the Cherry Hill mansion, one-time home of the Van Rensselaer family. The public is invited to step into the experiences of the Cherry Hill household on the evening of May 7, 1827, when a hired hand murdered a household member. The dramatic tour will investigate the scene of the crime and the differing perspectives of those who were there on that fateful evening. Actor James Keil will appear as Jesse Strang, bringing to life the murderer whose violent act was motivated by romantic attachment to his victim’s wife. The murder resulted in two sensational trials and Albany’s last public hanging.
The program will be offered at 5:30 and 7 pm on those evenings. Reservations are required. Admission is $15 for members and $20 for non-members. Tickets are available at eventbrite.com. Members of Historic Cherry Hill should contact shawna@nullhistoriccherryhill.org to receive the discounted rate. Historic Cherry Hill is a historic house museum in Albany, NY, and the five-generation home of the Van Rensselaer family from 1787-1963.
Murder At The Tonylou Awards
A mystery dinner theater whodunit. Presented by Schenectady Civic Players, and benefits their Centennial fund. 6:00 pm, Friday, October 25, at The Water;s Edge Lighthouse — Terrace Room, 2 Freemans Bridge Road, Glenville, NY. $65 ticket includes show and dinner. To reserve or for more information call 518- 382-2081 ( Press Option 6).
Murder at Sand Lake Center for the Arts… it’s Diabolically hilarious!
Looking for some All Hallows Eve fun or…Mayhem? Sand Lake Center for the Arts needs your presence when they bring you, for one night only, The Benefit of Murder Dinner Theater Show. Intriguing? Disturbing? or just plain side-spitting! Join us as The Board members of Struggling Actors invite you to the 15th Annual All Hallows Eve Dinner and Charity Event to Benefit Struggling Actors and the Almost Extinct Lesser Long Nosed Weasel. What happens when a group of actors get in the same room and attempt to shine light on anything other than their abilities? Will the night be filled with drama or ego? Or perhaps…Murder! The Benefit of Murder, October 26th at 6pm. Tickets $45. Includes dinner and dessert. This event will be catered by the Mess Hall and Tighe’s Bistro Amercain and features a cash bar. For reservations go to www.slca-ctp.org or call the office at 518-674-2007. SLCA is located at 2880 NY43, Averill Park, NY 12018. The building is handicap accessible and has ample parking.
Town of East Greenbush Jack O Lantern Contest
Pre-Carved Pumpkin Contest! All entries may be dropped off as early as 3:00 p.m. but must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. on October 31st to the contest organizers at the Red Barn at the Town Park.
Pumpkins will be on display and voted on during our Party at the Park Candy with a Cop Event from 6-8PM on Oct. 31st.
The bottom of entered pumpkins must be removed so that the pumpkin can be placed on top of a LED light (provided by the Town) Cutting the top of a pumpkin off causes the top lid to shrink and decay very quickly so the lid falls inside. Pumpkins with the top cut off will be disqualified.
The carved pumpkins must be able to stand without any support or back drop needed.
Inappropriate pumpkins will be disqualified.
Participants may use carving kits or commercial stencils, however, handmade stencils or free hand carvings will earn more creativity points in the judging.
Pumpkins are not to be painted or otherwise decorated. Only carved pumpkins will be entered into the contest.
Prizes will be awarded for each age group winner.
• Kids up to 12 years – Most creative pumpkin and silliest Jack • Teens 13 to 17 years – Most creative pumpkin and Creepiest Jack • Adult 18 years and older – Most creative pumpkin and best use of the entire pumpkin • All entries must be labeled with the following information (on an index card or alike taped to the back of the pumpkin) name, address, phone number, category and please note if a commercial stencil was used. • Please indicate whether you would like your pumpkin returned to you. All pumpkins must be picked up by 8:30 PM. • All pumpkins not picked up will be on display at the park through the weekend and then discarded.
For questions please call the Community and Recreation Department @ 518-477-4194
“Garden,” an Installation by Professor Thomas Lail, Continues at Hudson Valley Community College
Thomas Lail, Garden (detail), 2018, cut frosted vinyl on windows, 300 x 144”
“Garden,” an ongoing, site-specific installation by Fine Arts Professor Thomas Lail, can be viewed from inside or outside the Administration Building at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy since it scales the glass atrium of the building, and will remain on view indefinitely.
The installation is Lail’s over-sized rendering of a William Morris wallpaper pattern and reflects on the history of glassed-in winter gardens, cultivated nature, and the dream of Utopian architectures of transparency. This long-term work is the first in a planned series of window projects by faculty in the department of Fine Arts, Theatre Arts and Digital Media.
Lail exhibits in the United States and internationally. From 2011 to 2016, he was represented in New York by Masters Projects. Lail also performs and records with an experimental music duo, soundBarn, and the multi-member Location Ensemble. He has published numerous reviews and essays, including two catalogue essays on the work of Robert Longo, and releases poetry and experimental writing through soundBarn Press. Since 1993, Lail has taught drawing and painting at Hudson Valley Community College, where he is professor of Fine Arts and a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award.
“Garden” was made possible by the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation’s Stephen L. Hyatt Fine Arts Fund, and installed in spring/summer 2018 with assistance from the college’s Graphics Department and Physical Plant, as well as NoName Graphics, Troy.
The Hudson Valley Community College campus is located at 80 Vandenburgh Ave. in Troy. “Garden” is visible any day from outside the Administration Building, which is accessible daily except Sundays and when the college is closed: Nov. 27-30, Dec. 24-25 and Dec. 31-Jan. 1.
Stephen King Dollar Baby Film Festival is one highlight of Fall 2019 Cultural Events Schedule at Hudson Valley Community College
The Dollar Baby Film Festival will be a rare opportunity to view four short films inspired by the work of the legendary author Stephen King, including a Capital Region premier of local author and filmmaker Bryan Higby’s “Here There Be Tygers.” The festival will be Friday, Nov. 22 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Bulmer Telecommunications Center on the Troy campus and is open free to the public.
“Here There Be Tygers,” (2019, 11 min.) is a liberating tale from the viewpoint of a child who sees tigers in the school restroom. The evening also will feature Jay Holben’s renowned “Paranoid” (2000, 8 min.), a favorite of King himself; Rodney Altman’s “Unmeny’s Last Case,” (2006, 18 min.), about a 1930s private detective whose life bizarrely and swiftly falls apart, and Shawn S. Lealos’s “I Know What You Need” (2005, 33 min.), in which a young woman has strong suspicions about the true identity of her roommate’s “too good to be true” new boyfriend. A Q&A with Higby will follow the films.
The Dollar Baby concept was born in 1977 as King’s growing popularity fueled his desire to help novice filmmakers seeking permission to make films of his work. Under the program, fledgling filmmakers pay just $1 for the opportunity to create a film based on one of the horror master’s short works. The caveat: Dollar Baby films cannot be released to the pubic or on the internet, thus festival viewing usually is the only way to see them. It’s difficult to determine exactly how many Dollar Babies have been made, but King has described the films as “usually interesting and sometimes quite brilliant.”
The Dollar Baby Film Festival is presented by the college’s Cultural Affairs Program. The fall 2019 schedule also will include the following performances:
Lost Radio Rounders: Demon Rum! Songs of Temperance and Prohibition Thursday, Oct. 10 from noon to 1 p.m. / Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium
Take something away, you only make it more attractive. Songs of temperance and prohibition come from both sides of the bar, with some trying to quell the flow of demon rum and others hurrying to drink it up. Typically, Lost Radio Rounders finds the history, the humor and the pathos in the great American battle over the bottle. The band members are Tom Lindsay – vocals, 6-, 12-string and baritone guitar, strumstick, 6-string banjo and piano, and Michael Eck – vocals, mandolin, guitar and tenor guitar, dobro, ukulele and banjo. Outside the duo, Lindsay is a photographer and educator, and Eck is an arts publicist, critic and writer. Local audiences are both educated and entertained by their themed, radio days-inspired programs such as Blue Collar Blues, Campfire Songs & Sing-A-Longs, and The Gospel Trail.
Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers Thursday, Nov. 7 from noon to 1 p.m. / Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium Celebrate Native American Heritage Month and learn more about American Indian history, culture and traditions. Mark Tayac and the Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers carry on the long standing traditions and culture of their indigenous ancestors. The troupe travels from the Tayac Territory in Port Tobacco, MD with its colorful, educational and entertaining pow wow-style program of American Indian dance, drum and song. The Piscataway Nation Singers & Dancers also appear frequently on the History and Discovery channels, and perform regularly at the Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC and at major Native American festivals throughout the United States. Successors of the Algonquin peoples, members of the Piscataway Nation were the first Native Americans to encounter Captain John Smith along the Potomac River in 1608.
The full Cultural Events Calendar is available at www.hvcc.edu/culture. Please call 518-629-8071 or email d.gardner@nullhvcc.edu for more information
The Teaching Gallery at Hudson Valley Community College Opens Fall 2019 Semester with Exhibition of Sculpture and Installation by Peter Dudek and Susan Meyer
The Teaching Gallery at Hudson Valley Community College announces Collage City, an exhibition of sculpture and installation by New York-based artists Peter Dudek and Susan Meyer. Following an opening reception with the artists from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, the exhibit will be on view through Oct. 26 in The Teaching Gallery, located on the ground floor of the Administration Building on the Troy campus.
Artist talks will be on Thursday, Sept. 19 with Dudek and Wednesday, Oct. 16 with Meyer. Both talks are from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Bulmer Telecommunications Center Auditorium. All events, including the reception, are free and open to the public.
Both Susan Meyer and Peter Dudek explore the dream and fragmentary remains of utopian societies in their work. The exhibit title references the 1984 book in which architects and frequent co-authors Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter critique post-WWII urban design, rejecting the concept of “total planning” in favor of a “collage city” made up of an assortment of smaller, neighborhood utopias. Likewise, Dudek and Meyer use modernist and utopian concepts of architecture and community organization as a basis to explore contemporary culture and the built environment.
Dudek will exhibit selections from several bodies of work, as well as other “sculptural experiments.” In his recent White-Out pieces, Dudek paints on photographs of his installations and studio views in an almost “anti-collage” manner that, according to the artist, “edits out details in search of other resolutions and ambiguity [where] elements and distances become uncertain… echoing the indefinite nature of art-making and the predicament of forever being in search mode when in the studio.” Suspended from the gallery ceiling, Dudek’s Clouds contain bits and pieces of architectural forms and materials that he thinks of as “thought clouds, dreaming of life in a cumulus idyll.” Some of the clouds contain “building fragments, violently thrown above by tornadoes” and bring to mind “a floating salvage yard.”
Meyer’s work explores her ongoing interest in Drop City, a late 1960s Colorado commune. Its members built geodesic dome houses from reclaimed objects such as cut up car hoods, and earned a 1967 R. Buckminster Fuller “Dymaxion Award.” (In Fuller’s early career, the architect developed and promoted ways to build practical and efficient housing.) In her complex sculptures, Meyer combines intricate hand-built structures with digitally rendered images that pay homage to the geodesic domes of Fuller and Drop City. In both their construction and broad use of found materials and images, her pieces exemplify the “cut and combine” aesthetic of Drop City, as well as the creative freedom that life on the commune embodied. Like many other communities of its kind, Drop City was abandoned by the early 1970s, but its dream of communal survival and self-governance resonates to this day.
Peter Dudek holds a MA degree from Hunter College and a BFA degree from the School for Visual Arts, both in New York City. He is the Director of Cultural Programming for Bascom Lodge in Adams, MA, and teaches sculpture at Hunter College and the School of Visual Arts. Recent exhibitions include I Forgot, BravinLee Programs, NYC; Polymorphous, Cluster Gallery, Brooklyn; Space, Light and Disorder, Markel Fine Arts, NYC, and Object’hood, Lesley Heller Workspace, NYC. He lives in Yonkers and Windsor, MA.
Susan Meyer, associate professor in the Center for Art and Design at the College of Saint Rose, holds a MFA degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, MA, and a BS degree from Skidmore College. Recent exhibits include Earthly Delights, The Re Institute, Millerton, NY; Ear to the Ground, Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT; Contemporary Sculpture: Off the Wall, Floor and Ceiling, Site: Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, and the Mohawk Hudson Regional Invitational, Albany Center Gallery. She lives in Hudson.
Exhibitions in The Teaching Gallery are installed and assisted by students enrolled in Gallery Management courses and supported by the Department of Fine Arts, Theatre Arts and Digital Media, the Cultural Affairs Program and the Hudson Valley Community College Foundation. Associate Professor Tara Fracalossi is gallery director.
Hours in The Teaching Gallery Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday: 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday: noon to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday: closed Directions and more information: www.hvcc.edu/teachinggallery
Rensselaer County Documentary Features Local Landfill Dilemma
With twice the amount of toxic contamination as the infamous Love Canal waste site, more than 46,000 tons of industrial hazardous wastes, PCBs and carcinogens, the Dewey Loeffel Landfill Superfund Site in Nassau, NY has a tragic past and an uncertain future.
The documentary: Love Canal X 2—A Landfill Dilemma in NY is in production. It will attempt to answer such questions as: What is the future of this toxic site, local lakes and waterways? How have people been affected? Will it affect you and future generations?
“I decided to make this documentary because I care about the people who have been, and are still being affected,” said Rensselaer County Writer/Filmmaker Barbara Reina. “History often repeats itself. Maybe by telling this story, I can have a positive effect on future generations.”
Film Trailer on-camera interviews scratch the surface of what’s in store for the full documentary. Local interviews include Nassau Town Supervisor David Fleming, Kinderhook Deputy Supervisor Patsy Leader and EPA Remedial Project Manager Joe Battipaglia, among others. To view the film trailer, updates and ways to support the production, visit the official documentary website at: barbarareina.com/nassau-documentary
Drone views over the Superfund site, Nassau and Kinderhook lakes, also the Hudson River, were filmed by WheelerDrone.com. The film trailer is narrated by Voice Talent Alex Verde, the Voice of the Monorail at Disneyland and Series Voice for ESPN Outdoors, the Discovery Network, CNN and CBS Television.
The finished documentary will feature a broad scope of interviews, history and research regarding the site. Chemical, environmental, human health and government issues will be explored, along with possible cleanup technologies. An on-camera visit to the treatment plant and explanation of how it functions has already been filmed. The release date of the full documentary on DVD is tentatively scheduled for December of 2020.