I found I could say things with colors that I couldn’t say in any other way — things that I had no words for.
Fill a space in a beautiful way.
To create one’s own world, in any of the arts, takes courage.
— American painter Georgia Totto O’Keeffe, born today in 1887
Hey there, Greater Washington! Where would you like to spend the weekend?
The Outdoors
In DC, join volunteers to restore plant beds in Coolidge High School’s rainscape garden on Saturday at 8:30 PM or, in Maryland, help finish the hiker and biker trail re-route at Lake Needwood at 9:00 AM — both with Rock Creek Conservancy. And on Sunday at 10:00 AM, join Potomac Conservancy in cleaning up the land and water surrounding Lock 8, and along miles 8 and 9 of the C&O Canal towpath.
The Theatre and Gallery
An enthralling adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic, The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V, produced by WSC Avant Bard, plays at Artisphere on Saturday at 2:00 and 7:30 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM; tickets here. Over on Capitol Hill, CHAW presents an all-media juried exhibit entitled “Local Turf,” opening on Saturday at 5:00 PM and running until December 2. At DCAC on Sunday at 5:00 PM, local artist Champneys Taylor discusses his first solo show “The Phono-Graphic Cycle” and its reflection of his interest in color, luminosity, and invented landscape.
From yesterday’s “Inspiration to Action 2011” at the Harman Center for the Arts:
Here we are. YEAR NINE. To the 2011-12 charities featured in our new Catalogue and to those of you being re-featured on our website this year, it is truly an honor, and a pleasure, to see you here today. I hope you are already feeling inspired by what we are doing together. […] Here at the Catalogue we believe in the power of telling stories — and in the hard work that makes it possible for donors and volunteers to tap into the in-depth information and guidance that is the foundation of our work. We want people who read the Catalogue and visit us on the web, to explore their own philanthropic interests and find what matters to them — knowing that we have already done the hard work that makes meaningful personal choice possible.
— Barbara Harman, President, Catalogue for Philanthropy
Welcome to November, Greater Washington! So, what would you like to do this weekend?
Enjoy Great Music …
On Saturday at 8:00 & Sunday at 3:00 PM, National Philharmonic presents an “All Beethoven” evening; tickets over this way. Enjoy an afternoon of exquisite solo virtuosity from the Washington Bach Consort on Sunday at 3:00 PM at the National Presbyterian Church (tickets here) or catch the American Youth Philharmonic‘s “Orchestral Brilliance,” also at 3:00 PM.
Happy (almost) Halloween, Greater Washington! Before trick-or-treating on Monday, consider spending a weekend day with one of our non-profits. We have great events coming up at …
Earth Sangha (at Rocky Run Stream Valley Park, Awbrey Patent Drive, Centreville, VA)
Enrich this stream-buffer site with a planting of native wildflowers and other herbaceous & small woody plants around Rocky Run on Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. More volunteer info available here.
Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture (at Glen Echo Park’s Bumper Car Pavilion, 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, MD)
“Fall Frolic” is a FREE public Halloween-themed festival on Saturday from 1:00 to 4:00 PM. Activities include hands-on crafts, face painting, pumpkin decorating, costume parade, and studio visits. Full schedule right here.
It is a feeling that no matter what the ideas or conduct of others, there is a unique rightness and beauty to life which can be shared in openness, in wind and sunlight, with a fellow human being who believes in the same basic principles.
Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences.
— American poet Sylvia Plath, born today in 1932
Today, we are welcoming not one … but two non-profit leaders to “7 Questions.” Buzz Mauro and Deb Gottesman are co-directors of The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts, which serves hundreds of youth and adults through its Life Stories program, and hundreds more through classes and summer camps in acting, directing, playwriting, and musical theatre .
1. What was your most interesting recent project, initiative, partnership, or event?
We are about to embark on a project that is one of our “big dreams:” a theatre and documentary film project by and about the participants in our Life Stories program for homeless women residing in N Street Village’s Recovery Housing Unit. Life Stories is our signature outreach program which trains people from typically marginalized populations to create original dramatic works based on their real-life experiences. We work with incarcerated and severely at-risk youth, seniors, critically ill children and their families, as well as with formerly homeless women. And we now feel that it’s time to share the work of the women from N Street on a larger stage. The monologues, scenes, poetry, and more that these women have created are so powerful and so well-acted that we want to make sure their voices are heard — not only by social justice activists, but also by people who love great theatre.
Good morning, Washington! Plenty for you to do this weekend at our non-profits …
Volunteer Fest @ Volunteer Fairfax (10530 Page Ave, Fairfax, VA)
A region-wide day of community service held in conjunction with National Make a Difference Day, Volunteer Fest mobilizes hundreds of volunteers to help nonprofits accomplish tasks that they would not have the time or resources to do on their own. Check it out on Saturday at from 9:00-4:00.
Fall Frenzy @ DC SCORES! (at Kelly Miller Middle School, 301 49th Street NE)
Do swing by for this celebration of the DC SCORES fall season filled with soccer games, relays and arts and crafts, and other activities on Saturday from 10:00-2:00.
From “Shakespeare gives the latest strategy in anti-bullying in schools” in The Denver Post:
Shakespeare is the latest strategy in combating bullying in America’s schools, but the idea was not an immediate hit. “When we first told people, they said, ‘What? That’s weird. How do those two things go together?'” said Jane Grady, assistant director for the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado.
But after a month of performances of “Twelfth Night” in 25 schools across Colorado, which were followed by workshops in which kids talked about the character Malvolio and other bullies in the play, the results surprised the experts. […]
My conception of the audience is of a public each member of which is carrying about with him what he thinks is an anxiety, or a hope, or a preoccupation which is his alone and isolates him from mankind; and in this respect at least the function of a play is to reveal him to himself so that he may touch others by virtue of the revelation of his mutuality with them. If only for this reason I regard the theater as a serious business, one that makes or should make man more human, which is to say, less alone.
— American playwright Arthur Miller, born today in 1915