Arts/Culture

A blending of dance and music will be presented this evening at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. WBFO's senior reporter Eileen Buckley attended a rehearsal of the Buffalo Chamber Players and Lehrer Dance for their collaborative performance Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. 

Now in their fifth year, Raíces Theatre Company has found the sweet spot where resources and mission match the founders' original vision. 

Friends turned out Sunday to give Susan Tanner a musical sendoff in Babeville, where she worked for years with Righteous Babe Records.

Expect some changes for this summer's concert series on Buffalo's waterfront: a $5 entry fee and a new name.

Anthony and Peter are doing the first (of more, we hope) "Theater Talk Live" event – A Summer Theater Preview next Thursday May 25 at 10:30 am at the WNED-TV Studios! We'll provide an overview of musicals and plays being staged this summer across WNY and Southern Ontario.

Call it marketing, or branding, or just plain knowing your audience, but Buffalo theaters this week are delighting their niches with finely chosen fare.

Neglia Ballet Artists is preparing for their annual Dancing to Live Gala to be held Thursday, May 18th. WBFO's senior reporter Eileen Buckley says the event will premier two new ballet dances featuring world-renowned artists.   

The Tony Award nominations are out, and Anthony is pleased to report that this year no London performances were nominated.

There is no sound perceptible to the human ear in outer space, so it might seem an improbable subject for a sound art installation. But that is exactly what sound artist Tom Kostusiak is creating.

This week on Theater Talk, Anthony sings the praises of three women currently on local stages (coincidentally about 300 feet from each other in Buffalo's Theatre District): Joyce Stilson in I'M FINE at the Alleyway Theatre, Kate LoConti in THE WINSLOW BOY at Irish Classical Theatre Company, and Mary Gordon Murray in the touring updated CABARET at Shea's Performing Arts Center.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery has long been renowned for its collection of modern art, both purchased in the art market and donated by artists and gallery benefactors like John Albright and Seymour Knox Jr. Gallery Director Janne Siren announced Tuesday that the collection is expanding again with an amazing gift.

Tim O’Shei of The Buffalo News has been traveling around the country visiting Western New Yorkers who have had a big impact on pop culture. His latest feature in The Buffalo Connection series, which hit print Sunday, is a profile of Cirque du Soleil Composer Seth Stachowski. Stachowski’s big dreams and instrumental talent have taken him from across North America and back again.

Erie County's election-year budget is not due until the middle of October, but the quest to include some money in that budget for arts and culturals brought out around 70 agencies Thursday to the WNED|WBFO studios.

It's not a pared down touring CABARET that comes to Shea's next week; it's the real Broadway show. For something a lot quieter, THE CEMETERY CLUB is a bittersweet comedy about three widows and a widower at O'Connell and Company. Anthony saw GROUNDHOG DAY the musical in New York and both Peter and Anthony agree that the set, sound, and lights at THE TRIAL OF TRAYVON MARTIN are exceptionally well crafted.

One of Buffalo's historic cultural institutions celebrates 100 years of existence this year. To help mark their centennial, the Colored Musicians Club will host an expanded jazz festival this summer.

Take a look at any guide to starting a business and you’re likely to find first among the recommended steps, to research your market and then formulate a business plan. But some entrepreneurs find success without a plan and instead follow their hearts, use their smarts, and catch a trend. WBFO’s Arts & Culture Desk producer Scott Sackett visited with a local performance artist who did just that, opening a studio in Buffalo for a cinematic style of dance that’s gaining enormous popularity worldwide.

Rosalind Cramer, Theatre of Youth co-founder, passed away last week at the age of 81. She was also instrumental in founding MusicalFare Theatre, housed on the Daemen College (formerly "Rosary Hill") campus, where she taught theater. And this week there's more discussion of THE TRIAL OF TRAYVON MARTIN at the Manny Fried Theatre.

Artpark is preparing to recreate a painting hailed nearly 40 years ago as the largest in the world  by the Guiness Book of World Records.

One of the area's more prominent cultural tourism attractions is now going to be available to more people.

Playwright Gary Earl Ross,  winner of the Emanuel Fried Outstanding New Play Award for THE GUNS OF CHRISTMAS, whose plays about race relations and legal proceedings THE MARK OF CAIN and MATTER OF INTENT were well received, has a new play produced by Subversive Theatre -  THE TRIAL OF TRAYVON MARTIN.

On April 6, 1917, the United States of America committed to participation in World War I by declaring war on Germany. The Buffalo History Museum is marking the centennial by opening a new exhibit that explores what was supposed to be "the war to end all wars." That exhibit includes tributes to Western New Yorkers who served and sacrificed for the war effort.

When you think of innovation industries and start-ups on the vanguard of Buffalo’s new economy, chances are what comes to mind are businesses in the health sciences, biotech, renewable energy, and digital technologies. But there is a growing number of artists in traditional trades such as woodworking and metalworking who are fostering a new creative industry in Buffalo. WBFO Arts and Culture Desk producer Scott Sackett visited the business incubator The Foundry, where art and commerce converge with cultural heritage and emerging trends.

While old Hollywood movies might have us believe that all you need is a stage to "put on a show," in fact there are weeks of behind the scenes preparation, including developing "back stories" for all the characters, as explained by Marissa Biondolillo, currently in the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play PROOF.

PROOF, a drama by David Auburn, stands up well to repeated viewings, and if you've only seen the movie, well, you haven't seen the drama. Presented by Buffalo Laboratory Theatre, with Marissa Biondolillo in the role of Catherine, the mathematician, it's at Shea's 710 Main Theatre but only tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2. 

Acting coach Constantin Stanislavski (whose name is associated with Marlon Brando's "method acting") once said, famously, "Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors." But what if the actors are, well, actually kind of small? Two Buffalo favorites who fit that category show their huge talents in two ongoing productions.