Sugar daddy Abner Dillon (Owen Smith, left) and leading lady Dorothy Brock (Annie Purvis) exchange words with director Julian Marsh (Paul Alary) in 42nd Street, part of Sacramento State’s Festival of the Arts.
Sacramento State presents an array of artistic events that traverse disciplines and departments with the annual “Festival of the Arts,” a four-day line-up of performances, exhibitions, lectures and readings from the University’s Art, Design, English, Music and Theatre and Dance departments, March 12-15. To kick off the March 14 performances, a reception will be held at 5 p.m. in the Library Gallery.
At the center of this spring celebration is 42nd Street, the musical Cinderella story of a young woman from a small town who goes from chorus girl to Broadway star. Forty performers will dance their way into audiences’ hearts in this timeless fable that includes such hits as “We’re in the Money” and “Lullaby of Broadway.” Staged in the University Theatre of Shasta Hall, the play is written by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble and directed and choreographed by theatre and dance professor Ed Brazo.
Unlike plays such as My Fair Lady or The Music Man, 42nd Street isn’t a standard American musical—it began as a 1933 Warner Brothers movie. “But it’s a typical song-and-dance production in the Busby Berkeley tradition,” says director Ed Brazo. Opening night is 8 p.m., Friday, March 14, with other performances scheduled for March 15-16, 20-23, and 27-30.
If you’re in the mood for more dancing, Sacramento’s Dangerous Lorraines Dance Theater will perform at 8 p.m., March 14-15, in Solano Hall 1010. Founded by artistic director Melissa Wynn, the group is co-directed by Sacramento State professor Lorelei Bayne and features a range of dancers, actors, musicians and designers to produce enchanting, visceral performances.
Dave Pietro
The Los Angeles Guitar Quartet will perform in Capistrano Hall’s Music Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 12. The group is credited with creating a unique synthesis of world music and contemporary styles. Dave Pietro joins the University’s Jazz Ensemble for a Thursday, March 13, concert in the Music Recital Hall. Music professor Lorna Peters takes the stage in Capistrano 151 for a harpsichord recital at 8 p.m., Friday, March 14. And the World Music series continues with a concert of east Indian classical music in the Music Recital Hall at 8 p.m., Saturday, March 15.
The Festival’s fifth annual art history symposium will be held from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday, March 15 in Mariposa 1000. Titled “Visual><Verbal Border Crossings,” the free symposium features a keynote address by Roberto Tejada, a bilingual poet, critic and historian of Latin American and Latino visual and language arts. An exhibition of works by Art Department faculty opens Friday, March 14, in the University Library Gallery and runs through May 24. Sacramento State alumnus and “art anarchist” Richard Jackson, a renowned installation artist, will speak about his work at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 13, in Kadema 145.
The Design Department will sponsor a lecture by Lawrence Scarpa, from the Santa Monica firm of Pugh + Scarpa Architects, at 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 12, in Hinde Auditorium. An exhibition of the firm’s works will run in the Design Gallery, Mariposa 4000, March 10-21.
There also will be presentations and readings by fiction writer Brian Evenson, memoirist Dinah Lenney and poet Amy Gerstler, March 11-13.
Many events are free. Tickets for performances are available at Sacramento State’s Ticket office, 278-4323 or www.tickets.com. For more information on the Festival of the Arts, visit www.al.csus.edu/festival or call the College of Arts and Letters at 278-6502.
