Results tagged “theprogram”

Last Friday & the weekend: Michael defended his decision to cut $21 million in funding to Philadelphia Safe and Sound, the program that, as we mentioned last week, John Street had shifted money to in the waning days of his administration. And he announced that the Department of Public Welfare would be auditing Safe and Sound's finances for the last couple years. Michael also ignited Governor Rendell's fury with his revocation of SugarHouse's casino license, as Rendell is all for the casinos.

do). That being said, when you can embrace the fact that this is what you get from Arthur Miller, you have to admit that he's a helluva writer. There's a reason that his plays are so oft-performed. As an actor, there's something supremely satisfying about mastering his long monologues. As an audience member, it's refreshing to see a play where the characters talk like real people and remind you of real people. Not necessarily people you like, mind you – but people you know.

Warning: This whole review is basically a spoiler. Despite its infamy, there are apparently people out there who are still surprised by the "twist" at the end of M. Butterfly, currently being produced by the Philadelphia Theatre Company. These are the same people who are confused by Ru Paul. Please proceed with caution.

I showed up at Mauckingbird Theatre Company's with a combination of excitement and trepidation. Excitement because I love Molière and Dito van Reigersberg. Trepidation because an all-male production of a French farce? I expected half the cast to be in outrageous Marie Antoinette-like drag costumes. It's not that I don't love a good drag show – it's just that I didn't see that combining it with Molière would be anything less than too much.

Phillyist, like untold thousands in the Delaware Valley, resolved to be more active this year. If you’re one of those thousands and are looking for a place to start, consider combining it with that other favorite resolution, volunteering in the community. Back On My Feet running club lets you do just that: you’ll run in Center City with homeless men from local shelters. It may seem odd at first glance, but the non-profit is committed to promoting self-sufficiency by using running as a way to build confidence, strength, and self-esteem. The organization just started this past summer, and already has gotten attention and accolades aplenty. The idea started with founder Anne Mahlum, who would pass by a homeless shelter on her morning run, and slowly established a good rapport with the men who were outside. July 3rd marked the first outing of the Homeless Running Club, and now there are four teams that work with three area shelters. Each team runs at least three times a week, giving you plenty of opportunity to build relationships with your teammates and work up to that four-minute mile. BOMF is establishing connections with local businesses and job training centers, and one member recently accepted a job, the first concrete success story of the program. From the sounds of it, though, the story of every runner is a successful one, as the goals set within the program and the dedication of the staff inspire members to not only reap the health benefits, but to use the confidence gained in the program to effect positive change in their lives. The line that made Phillyist cry? “No one ever runs by themselves because life is a lot harder when you go through it alone.” Amen, sister.

What do you do when you've been a concert pianist for 50 years? Why, give a concert, of course! The Ama Deus Ensemble was more than happy to host Romanian pianist and Ama Deus regular Dan Grigore for an Anniversary Gala in Perelman Hall. The first piece on the program, Beethoven's Egmont Overture, incidental music for a play by Goethe, was plagued by some ensemble problems. Conductor Valentin Radu's animated style was a delight...

The Academy of Music, 8PM, $22-124. (Halloween party $25) This performance runs through November 3.

Rock chamber ensemble? What does that even mean? In case you were a bit fuzzy on the concept like I was, it means classically trained musicians have taken up rock instruments and play music composed by classically-trained composers. In short, high-art rock music. Not a bad idea, right? As a result, I was pleasantly surprised and very impressed with rock chamber ensembles Newspeak and Electric Kompany presented by Chamber Music Now! in their season opener.

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.

The main problem with Shakespeare is that he wrote so darn much. Any group tackling this monstrous body of work in any form is certainly in for a ride. LyricFest's "Biography in Music - Shakespeare" was a fairly successful attempt. The amount of material covered by the program - the life of Shakespeare, readings from his works, and song settings of his works - certainly presents a problem for even the most dedicated programmer. LyricFests's solution of a continuous cycle of biographical reading, play reading, and song was a bit too disjointed and detracted from the overall flow of the concert. I would have preferred a higher ratio of song to reading and more continuous singing. The readings tended to relate somewhat to the upcoming song, but it was not always entirely clear how. The repertoire was well-chosen for the most part and included a wide range of Shakespeare-setters from Verdi to Finzi. I was a bit surprised that the the most famous Shakespeare song, "It was a lover and his lass," only made it into a truncated version in a reading.

(Mum Puppettheatre) (Future Showtimes)

(Kaibutsu) (Future Showtimes)

Hey there, readers! I'm back liveblogging the second day of the First Annual BlogPhiladelphia "unconference." This post will be constantly updating throughout the day, so it's going to stay at the top of the Phillyist main index. But be sure to scroll down for the rest of our regular content, and see full liveblog after the jump! (Meanwhile, forgive us any resulting funny HTML, folks. We're fixing mistakes as soon as we find them.)

The Philadelphia Art Alliance's New Music Mondays series presents works by Jan Krzywicki, Professor of Composition at Temple University.

I must admit, I'm usually wary of early Beethoven. For me, it lacks the drive and passion of his middle and late periods. I was pleasantly surprised last night, however, by Miklós Perényi (cello) and András Schiff (piano) in their all-Beethoven program presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society at the Independence Seaport Museum.

Films: The Bothersome Man, The Kovak Box

Future Screenings: No future screenings scheduled

New York native Richard Goode, piano, comes to Philadelphia (thanks to the PCMS) for an evening of hits: Bach, Mozart, Brahms, and Debussy.

Time to gear up, people: the 16th Philadelphia Film Festival starts tomorrow! As we did last year, Phillyist is planning plenty of coverage, mostly taking the form of film festival diary entries from various staff members (including, of course, yours truly, whose schedule can be seen here, in case you're interested). But what's going on this year, and what should you look forward to? Well, we're glad you asked. Let's pick through the overview press release, shall we?

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you.

Nothing about talking about AIDS is pleasant. It's a disease that still has an enormous stigma attached to it, based largely on decades-old misunderstandings of what it is and who gets it. To me, it always seemed like an abstract concept well beyond my level of comprehension, like quantum physics. I knew it was out there, and I knew it was important, but I didn't feel qualified to weigh in on those rare occasions during which it came up.

Wow! Did this creep up on anybody else? We were thinking this was still a ways off, and then all of the sudden the website is live, the schedule is up, and tickets go on sale TODAY (although as of this writing, the links for purchasing don't seem to be live yet online)! (UPDATE: Online ticketing now appears to be up and running.) We haven't had a chance to look over this year's list of movies in detail, but a quick glance at program titles like "Asian Gangsters" and "A Salute to Disney Animation" has already gotten us pretty excited. If, like us, you could use some help getting a handle on what's showing this year and what are the best things to see, you might want to check out one of the Evening with the Curators events. We're embarrassed to say we missed the first one of these this year last night, where the program was unveiled and information on advanced ticket sales was given out. But we're sure future installments with the curators will be plenty informative and fun, too. You can get an idea of what to expect at the event from our coverage of last year's. It's the inside scoop on how the festival was programmed, which of the films are the curators' favorites, and how you should go about scheduling and viewing the films. This year we are also promised film clips! Sweet.

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you.

To all the knitters out there:

A very cool event for a very cool cause is going down tomorrow night, and we wanted you to know about it. The event is a winter-themed dance party called Shake & Shiver, featuring music, film screenings, a raffle, refreshments, and a holiday photo booth. It's the first fundraiser for a non-profit organization called Girls Rock Philly, who are working to establish Philly's only rock camp for girls:

. I’ll wait.