William Shakespeare would have turned 450 on April 23, and there are several ways to get in on the birthday act in Atlanta:
- Georgia Shakespeare will offer a weekend of festivities on April 26-27 at its home, Oglethorpe University's Conant Performing Arts Center.
On April 26, the annual Georgia Shakespeare High School Acting Competition will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with budding actors from across metro Atlanta competing for scholarships and trophies and participating in educational workshops.
On April 27, from 1 to 4 p.m., the Junior League of Atlanta and Georgia Shakespeare's education department are hosting the annual Shakespeare's Birthday Party. Family-friendly activities during this free event will include juggling, a bouncy house, theater games and crafts (kids can make and take home swords, masks, shields and more). There will be performances by Georgia Shakespeare associate artists and the Riotous Youth High School Shakespeare Ensemble, as well as Celtic Fire, a dance troupe. No Bard birthday would be complete without cake, and Shakespeare himself will appear to blow out the candles.
You also can continue the celebration with this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park performances of “As You Like It” at Piedmont Park from June 4 to 8. General admission: $10. Reserved tables for six: $250.
4484 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-504-1473, www.gashakespeare.org.
- Atlanta Shakespeare Company at the New American Shakespeare Tavern recently opened "Macbeth," continuing through May 4.
Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 6:30 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m. most Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There will be a Q&A with cast and crew members after the 6:30 p.m. April 13 show. There will be no show on Easter, April 20.
Tickets, $20-$36 (with discounts for students, educators, seniors, military); $14 matinees. 499 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-874-5299, www.shakespearetavern.com.
- Atlanta Ballet wraps up performances of Stephen Mills' adaptation of "Hamlet " at 2 p.m. April 13 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra performing Philip Glass' score.
Tickets start at $20. 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 404-892-3303, www.atlantaballet.com.
- Finally, for a belated celebration, Lefont Sandy Springs will be showing encores of the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of "Henry IV" and "The Two Gentlemen of Verona."
Part 1 of “Henry IV” screens at 10:30 a.m. June 7 and 7 p.m. June 9; Part 2 is at 10:30 a.m. July 12 and 7 p.m. July 14. “Verona” will show Sept. 20 and 22.
Tickets, $15. 5920 Roswell Road, Atlanta. 404-255-0140, www.lefonttheaters.com.
VISUAL ART
‘Crimes Against Nature’ at Hudgens
Since 2006, Atlanta artist Pam Longobardi has transformed scavenged plastic waste that mars the ocean — baby dolls, netting, laundry bottles and much more — into art. The Georgia State University art professor's ongoing "The Drifters Project" attracted major attention when Longobardi won the $50,000 Hudgens Prize last year out of a pool of 370 Georgia applicants.
The solo exhibition that Longobardi has created as part of the prize, “What Once Was Lost Must Now Be Found: Chronicling Crimes Against Nature,” opens at Duluth’s Hudgens Center for the Arts on April 16.
New works will include an 11-foot-tall wall piece, a black droplet made from more 500 pieces of plastic collected at Alaska, Costa Rica, Hawaii, California and Alabama; and an “Economies of Scale” floor work that presents objects in a sequence from a 4-foot-tall piece of tsunami debris collected in Katmai, Alaska, to a Styrofoam ball taken from a sea cave in Greece.
The exhibit also will feature remountings of the artist’s first “Drifters Project” piece, which appeared at Atlanta’s Sandler Hudson Gallery in 2007, and an outdoor installation work she created for the 55th Venice Biennale exhibition in 2013 (it will be displayed in the Hudgens’ garden).
Some of the new works were created by Longobardi from material collected during an Alaskan expedition last June and during her ongoing work on the Greek island of Kefalonia. The Alaskan expedition was the subject of the National Geographic film "Gyre: Creating Art From a Plastic Ocean." View it at http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/gyre-video-complete.
Artist reception (for “What Once Was Lost Must Now Be Found” and “To Feel the Clouds … the Photography of John Slemp”) and Family Day: 2-4 p.m. April 26 (free admission all day). Longobardi will give an artist’s talk at 1 p.m. June 21.
Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Through June 28. 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Building 300, Duluth. 770-623-6002, www.thehudgens.org.
EVENTS
Tellus to open late for lunar eclipse
It’s a school night, but Tellus Science Museum officials think the total lunar eclipse happening in the wee hours of April 15 has such educational value for future scientists that the Cartersville attraction plans to be open from 1 to 5:30 a.m.
The observatory and all the galleries will be open throughout, and the planetarium will offer sky tours and eclipse demonstrations at 2, 3 and 4 a.m.
In addition to the observatory’s 20-inch PlaneWave telescope, smaller telescopes on the museum grounds will be aimed at the moon. Images of the moon will be broadcast from the observatory into the theater, where Tellus experts will provide running commentary. Should the skies over the museum become cloudy, it will broadcast the eclipse image from a clear site elsewhere in North or South America.
Regular admission applies: $14; $12 ages 65 and up; $10 students and ages 3-17; free, active military with ID. 100 Tellus Drive (Exit 293 off I-75), Cartersville. 770-606-5700, www.tellusmuseum.org.
