Even as it undergoes a major expansion to accommodate a museum focused on Jim Henson and international puppetry, the Center for Puppetry Arts will be kicking up more dust with a busy 2014-15 season lineup.
Two international troupes will perform as part of the center’s expansive family series, Periferia Teatro de Titeres of Spain and Nova Scotia’s Mermaid Theatre. The Midtown attraction also will mount a Theatre for the Very Young world premiere, Amy Sweeney’s “Shake a Tale Feather with Mother Goose.”
A highlight of the New Directions Series for adults and teens will be “Anne Frank: Within and Without,” presented in cooperation with the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.
The schedule …
Family series
May 27-June 8: “Squirrel Stole My Underpants” by Bonnie Duncan of Boston.
June 12-July 20: “Dr. Seuss’s the Cat in the Hat,” an encore of the popular 2013-14 production.
July 22-Aug. 3: “Guyi-Guyi: The Other Ugly Duckling” by Periferia Teatro de Titeres of Murcia, Spain.
Aug. 5-17, 2014: “The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites” by Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia.
Aug. 21-Sept. 21: “Shake a Tale Feather With Mother Goose.”
Sept. 24-Oct. 5: “The Old Man and the Monkeys & Other Chinese Tales” by Dragon Art Studio of Portland, Ore.
Oct. 8-26: “The Wizard of Oz” by Frisch Marionettes of Cincinnati.
Oct. 28-Nov. 9: “The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Silly Hollow” by Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers of Bar Harbor, Maine.
Nov. 13-Dec. 28: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Dec. 30-Jan. 11, 2015: “The Stinky Cheese Man” by Paul Mesner Puppets of Kansas City, Mo.
Jan. 14-25, 2015: “The Big Bad, Little Red, Pig Show” by Atlanta’s Lee Bryan, That Puppet Guy.
Jan. 29-March 15, 2015: “Rainforest Adventures.”
March 17-22, 2015: “The Joshua Show” by Joshua Holden of New York.
March 24-April 4, 2015: “Stellaluna” by Tears of Joy Theatre of Portland, Ore.
April 9-May 24, 2015: “Paul Bunyan and the Tall Tale Medicine Show.”
New Directions series for adults, teens
Aug. 28-30: National Puppet Slam (ages 18 and up)
Feb. 18-March 8, 2015: “Anne Frank: Within and Without” adapted by Bobby Box and directed by Mira Hirsch (ages 12 and up).
March 20-22, 2015: “D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks” (ages 12 and up) by Sandglass Theater of Putney, Vt.
May 14-17, 2015: Experimental Puppetry Theater (ages 18 and up)
1404 Spring St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-873-3391, www.puppet.org.
VISUAL ART
Signature shows pottery from North Carolina mountains
The Potters of Roan, the subject of a group exhibition opening at Signature Shop & Gallery on May 17, share more in common than the glory of living amid the high peaks of the Roan Mountain ridge in western North Carolina.
Surrounded by spruce-fir forest land that is home to natural rhododendron gardens, the ceramicists who work in the 12 potteries that form the guild are connected by friendship and certain creative commonalities, despite the diversity of their output.
“I see an interesting connection that runs through all the work,” Signature Shop owner Carr McCuiston said. “It is subtle in some and obvious in others, but each potter’s work shows their relationship to the land around them. Nature is a common thread with a wide variety of interpretations.”
Pieces in the show, opening with a 6 to 8 p.m. reception, will range from Michael Kline’s rustic-yet-sophisticated wood-fired and salt-glazed pottery vessels decorated with vines to Jenny Lou Sherburne’s brightly hued sculptural stoneware.
3267 Roswell Road N.W., Atlanta. 404-237-4426, www.thesignatureshop.com.
MUSIC
Jazz grows on Callanwolde’s lawn
Callanwolde Fine Arts Center has posted its Jazz on the Lawn summer lineup:
June 13: “An Evening of Duke Ellington With Ted Howe.”
June 27: Organist Ike Stubblefield and Friends.
July 11: Soulful vocalist Diane Durrett.
Aug. 1: Trumpeter Joe Gransden.
Aug. 15: Multi-instrumentalist Bradford Rogers.
All shows are at 7:30 p.m. 980 Briarcliff Road N.E., Atlanta. $15 advance purchase online; $20 door. 404-872-5338, www.callanwolde.org/jazz-on-the-lawn-2014.
THEATER
Act3’s four-play season lineup
Act3 Productions, the Sandy Springs community theater, has announced its 2014-15 subscription season:
Sept. 5-20: “Crimes of the Heart,” Beth Henley’s comedy of family dysfunction.
Nov. 7-23: “Side Show,” the Bill Russell-Henry Krieger musical about Depression-era conjoined twin stars.
Jan. 30-Feb. 14, 2015: “The Elephant Man,” the Bernard Pomerance drama.
April 17-May 9, 2015: “Curtains,” the Kander-Ebb musical (with a book by Rupert Holmes) send-up of backstage murder mystery plots.
6285-R Roswell Road, Sandy Springs. 770-241-1905, www.act3productions.org.
Rodriguez selected for Latino arts institute
Aurora Theatre Producing Artistic Director Anthony Rodriguez has been selected to participate in the 2014 National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute.
To be held July 14-19 at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, the institute will convene 28 Latino arts leaders for intensive training in nonprofit arts management and leadership development. Rodriguez, who founded the Lawrenceville theater’s Spanish-language offshoot Teatro del Sol, will be the only participant from the Southeast.
Established in 2001, the institute seeks to nurture artists and arts administrators dedicated to “sustaining culturally specific work at the core of Latino communities and dedicated to changing and shaping cultural policy.”
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