March 27-April 13
‘Last Summer at Bluefish Cove’
Last week brought the news that Showtime’s popular lesbian soap opera “The L Word” will end after its sixth season, which starts early next year. But even before Jennifer Beals and the girls made it OK, dare I say trendy, for mainstream pop culture to accept lesbians, even before Ellen, there was Jane Chambers (1937-1983), one of the first American playwrights to depict the lives and struggles of openly lesbian characters. In a tribute to Chambers, Pandora Productions will stage one of her most famous plays, “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove,” which opens, fittingly enough, on her birthday.
“I read the story and fell in love with it,” Pandora artistic director Michael J. Drury says. “The characters are comfortable with who they are. It really exposes what family means.”
Chambers wrote “Bluefish Cove” in 1980 for The Glines’ Gay American Arts Festival. The story revolves around a group of friends who meet up once a year for a summer vacation.
“As we become more comfortable with ourselves, the rest of the world will become comfortable with us,” Chambers said in an interview with The New York Times. —Sara Havens
Henry Clay Building
604 S. Third St.
216-5502
www.PandoraProds.org
$15 (adv.), $17 (door); various times
Friday, March 28
Ben Sollee
Hard Rock International’s March on Stage series wraps up this Friday with Louisville singer-songwriter Ben Sollee at Hard Rock Café. Sollee recently released his third album, Learning How to Bend, and is touring the United States and Canada in support of it. But Sollee is no ordinary singer-songwriter — he is a classically trained cellist whose music actually reveals an Americana influence, encompassing traditional bow work with fiddling and plucking. Sollee has played around the world, including a show in China with a quartet that includes banjo master Bela Fleck (who also appears on the new album). Proceeds go to Musicians on Call, an organization dedicated to bringing live and recorded music to the bedsides of patients in healthcare facilities to enhance the healing process; attendees can also register to win a guitar signed by a number of March on Stage artists. Hell, this show is worth checking out just on the potential to hear Sollee’s re-working of Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” (Didn’t see that one coming, did you?) —Kevin Gibson
Hard Rock Café
424 S. Fourth St.
568-2202
www.hardrock.com
$5; 8 p.m.
Friday, March 28
British Sea Power
Do You Like Rock Music? That’s the title of British Sea Power’s new album, and a rhetorical question. Even if you might not like rock, these guys do. On its latest, the group doles out sharp, detailed opinions of Pope Benedict, a pro wrestler named Big Daddy and deer. Cheeky? You're in the ballpark.
But it’s not all darts and laurels. In early March, they donated proceeds from one of their T-shirts to fund an Arctic expedition for polar bear research, and the U.K.’s National Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Children. Even if you don’t dig what’s coming from the stage, you can at least rest assured their hearts are in the right place. Perennial touring act People Noise breaks from its never-ending U.S. tour. to open, as do Chicago faves The 1900s. —Mat Herron
Phoenix Hill Tavern
644 Baxter Ave.
589-4957
$12 (adv.), $15 (door); 7:30 p.m.
March 28-29
Kill ’Ville
No half measures here. Kill ’Ville, the sequel to last year’s Pulp Funktion, is a multi-venue, weekend-spanning party inspired by Quentin Tarantino’s films. On Friday, Baxter Avenue Theatres will show both films as part of their “Midnights at the Baxter Series” (beginning at 10 p.m.). And on Saturday, the party moves to Glassworks, where the second floor will be decorated in the style of the Volume I’s Tokyo Dance Club (presumably sans the ankle-deep pools of blood). Four DJs will spin music inspired by Tarantino films, the Ladybirds will play the music of the 5.6.7.8’s and there will be a demonstration from Hwang’s Martial Arts studio.
I know. Sounds surreal. —Alan Abbott
Glassworks
815 W. Market St.
992-3267
www.louisvilleglassworks.com
$10 (part of the proceeds go to LAVA House); 9 p.m.
Saturday, March 29
‘King Louis in the Drawing Room’
Brooklyn comes to Old Louisville for an evening as Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School and founder Molly Crabapple invade The Space @ 6th and Oak for three hours of creative decadence. Saturday marks the inaugural Louisville chapter of Dr. Sketchy’s, entitled “King Louis in the Drawing Room.” For the small fee of $8, artists can indulge in a non-traditional drawing atmosphere featuring burlesque dancers, circus freaks, contests, live music, comedy skits and booze.
Event coordinator Robert Major expects at least 25 people, but with the extra promotion, he hopes for more. “Of course there will be more at the after party,” he says. The after affair, “Las Masquerade,” features dancing and disguises and starts at 10 p.m. following the drawing event.
So how did this spectacular happening actually find its way here? “A few of my colleagues encountered the event in Philadelphia and thought it would be great for the Louisville art scene, since there’s nothing like it here,” Major says. —Maurice Williams
The Space @ 6th and Oak
530 W. Oak St.
www.6thoak.com
www.drsketchy.com
$8; 6 p.m.
March 29-30
Local talent at Iroquois Amphitheater
Is spring really here? The Louisville Metro Parks Department is banking on it — there’s a weekend of local entertainment planned at Iroquois Amphitheater. On Saturday, 15 local groups face off in the 2008 Metro Parks Youth Extravaganza Dance Competition, featuring young dancers from local churches, schools and community centers. Then on Sunday, it’s the inaugural Metro Parks Community Showcase, featuring music, singing and dancing from some of Louisville’s most noted talent groups. Performers include the University of Louisville Community Band, Gillman’s School of Dance, the Rockerettes, Ann Robinson-Burks, Step-n-Out Dance Studio, Folsom Academy of the Arts and Jennifer’s Academy of Dance. —Kevin Gibson
Iroquois Amphitheater
1080 Amphitheater Road
368-5865
www.metro-parks.org
$5; 2 p.m.
Through April 2
'Courage and Peace'
Beatrice Guarnscelle-Holt’s life, as with most artists, can be charted by her paintings. They’re not self-portraits in the true sense of the word but psychological studies, illustrating her happy marriage, a hard day with the kids or her travels. Everything is expressive in color and activity; even the landscapes get in on the act, with swaying motion built right in.
This retrospective of her large oil on canvas paintings is her first solo exhibition in Louisville. That’s an odd thing, since her ties to Louisville are strong (she attended U of L and later taught there). But she hasn’t been left wanting; her work is in public and private collections from Canada to South America. Rayluma Gallery will be open during the March 28 F.A.T. Friday Trolley Hop. —Jo Anne Triplett
Rayluma Gallery
2214 Frankfort Ave.
618-2787
www.raylumagallery.com
Through April 5
‘Cultural Knitting’
Here’s your chance to be an armchair traveler by experiencing distant cultures through the crafts of Moroccan Mercedes Nibur. Her knitting and jewelry combine fabrics and semi-precious stones from such far-off places as Israel and Scotland. With her background in linguistics, her work is inspired by languages as much as by locales.
Nibur, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, now lives in Louisville with her family. She will donate 10 percent of the sales of her art to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
The F.A.T. Friday Trolley Hop is always a good time to stop in because you can see both the gallery and the forge. If you’re real lucky, you can watch Craig Kaviar sweating away as he creates another metal masterpiece (the next hop is March 28). —Jo Anne Triplett
Kaviar Forge & Gallery
1718 Frankfort Ave.
561-0377
www.kaviargallery.com
