Arts/Culture

The nominations for the 29th Annual Artie Awards, a fundraiser for HIV/AIDS & Immunodeficiency Clinic at ECMC and a chance to highlight theatrical excellence in Western New York were revealed in a Facebook Live broadcast with Anthony Chase and Nicole Marrale Cimato this past Monday. You can watch it here. The 29th Artie Awards winners will be announced Monday, June 3, starting at 8pm (red carpet at 7pm) at Shea’s 710 Theatre.

Buffalo is going to get another museum and cultural center, this time covering the community's history with the changing Latino community.

Yet another local theater is starting the transition from a founder to a new generation of leadership.

The WNED|WBFO Artie Awards nominations will be live streamed on WBFO's Facebook feed Monday, May 20, at noon (the awards ceremonies will be Monday, June 3 at Shea's 710 Theatre). It's the awards season on Broadway, too, where Anthony Chase has been watching, meeting, and greeting.

He is best known as one of the members of legendary British comedy group Monty Python. John Cleese's extensive résumé includes the television series Fawlty Towers, numerous films including A Fish Called Wanda and countless supporting roles. He also served as a visiting professor at Cornell University and engages frequently with would-be trolls on Twitter. Cleese will appear in Buffalo Monday, May 20, to explain "Why There Is No Hope."

Much of the current focus on immigration into the United States remains on the country’s southern border. But in Buffalo, a local organization continues to serve as a beacon of hope for individuals and families fleeing war-torn and unstable nations.

Ujima Company opened the musical PASSING STRANGE in PUSH Buffalo's renovated "Elementary School 77" at 429 Plymouth Avenue on Buffalo's West Side while Road Less Traveled Productions continued with THE UNDENIABLE SOUND OF RIGHT NOW at their new theater on Main Street. This is all good.

Allentown is known for their variety of bars and late hour activities. This weekend, Nietzsche’s JazzFest IV looks to make its mark. The event runs through Sunday and features at least five groups each day. That includes jam sessions that start in the early morning hours. 

A little bit R&B. A little bit EDM. A little bit funk. The multi-instrumentalist producer and performer GRiZ is a little bit of a lot. He’s playing music off his new album 'Ride Waves' at Buffalo Riverworks Thursday night. WBFO’s Nick Lippa spoke with the artist about his sound, influences, and what exactly “future funk” is.

Most area theaters are going for laughs this week with the highly irreverant BOOK OF MORMON at Shea's, the ultra-clever EQUIVOCATION at the Kavinoky, and an all-female 1776 at O'Connell & Company.

Caroline Mallonee's compositions are often inspired by science, such as her previous collaboration with BPO 'cellist Feng Hew and conductor Chris Weber's Camerata di Sant'Antonio string orchestra called "Whistler Waves" (an atmospheric phenonmenon). The triple threat is back to premiere "Portraits of Andromeda" this Sunday, May 5.

Expo 68 Art and Design Gallery, located in the Eastern Hills Mall, turns one year old this month. The gallery often provides exhibitions centered around collaboration. For this anniversary, artists are teaming up with writers to provide a visual of the written word.

Just as the Artie Award committee thought it might begin deliberations, area stages are exploding with openings such as EQUIVOCATION (about "The Gunpowder Plot"), THE UNDENIABLE SOUND OF RIGHT NOW (an aging rocker confronts new musical tastes) and ANNAPURNA (ex-wife returns).

He didn't have a traditional start in theater, but that hasn't slowed him down. Jacques C. Smith, coming to Buffalo in the touring musical THE BOOK OF MORMON at Shea's Performing Arts Center April 30 to May 12, talks about the acting life.

Short play festivals abound! The Alleyway continues BUFFALO QUICKIES, highlighting eight local playwrights. At Buff State, the focus is on local, student directors with six one-acts. At the Manny Fried Playhouse, Raices Theatre presents locally written bilingual musical (yes!) shorts in their DESDE EL PUENTE series.

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo is hosting a visiting exhibit created by a Burmese artist who, along with hundreds of subjects he has met through his project, are former political prisoners in their homeland. His exhibit, a Show of Hands, features plaster casts of each former prisoner's hand. Some of them are of individuals who have since settled in Buffalo after spending years as refugees.

Music is…healing. Fun. Unifying. These were some statements made by nearly 200 students Monday night at a collaborative music concert at Kenmore East High School. Bands from Hutch Tech, Buffalo Performing Arts and Cheektowaga Central High School came together to perform and stress the importance of music education, especially in urban settings.

The internationally renowned Janoska Ensemble will be performing tonight in Olean at the The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. What makes the group stand out is their improvisational arrangements of classical pieces and on their new album, Revolution, they mix Bach with the Beatles. WBFO’s Nick Lippa spoke with the group’s double bass player Julius Darvas.

The Alleyway Theatre created a "Playwrights Circle" to nurture and develop local playwrights. Members include j. Snodrass, Bella Poynton, Mark C. Lloyd and Jennifer Tromble each of whom has one new one-act play as part of Buffalo Quickies 2019 with the other four selected by Festival Director Joyce Stilson from over 280 scripts (note adult content).

The latest designs for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's planned expansion were unveiled Thursday. The museum will close for an extended period of time once construction begins later this year.

Canalside has already revealed Incubus (August 6) and The Psychedelic Furs & james (July 18) would be coming to downtown Buffalo this summer. Wednesday, Canalside Buffalo announced The Struts and The Glorious Sons will be playing July 25 as part of their summer series.

With 116 full length CDs to her credit already, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director JoAnn Falletta is gearing up this weekend for yet another recording, bringing an old form of music, an oratorio (think "Messiah"), into the 21st century with Richard Danielpour's "The Passion of Yeshua."