Arts/Culture

There are some Buffalo Public Schools that don’t offer music programs like chorus or art classes like photography. The Buffalo Center for Arts and Technology (BCAT) on Main Street currently helps fill a role by providing these kind of classes and more for students after school. BCAT has been growing recently due to increased interest. And they have been able to meet a growing need in part to increased philanthropic support.

This is the 37th consecutive year Alleyway Theatre is producing A CHRISTMAS CAROL. At the same time, the Main Street theater is offering a show that is new to Buffalo, THE GOLDEN GIRLS: LOST EPISODES, HOLIDAY EDITION. Associate Artistic Director Chris J. Handley says advance ticket sales for THE GOLDEN GIRLS have been strong. Extra shows have been added to accommodate the expected large crowds for A CHRISTMAS CAROL, which again features David Mitchell as Scrooge.

About half of the current theater in town is Christmas inspired, but not all, and that includes Buffalo's "Theatre District" starting with Shea's 710's remount of CHRISTMAS OVER THE TAVERN and the Alleyway's annual favorite A CHRISTMAS CAROL, but we also have Melissa Leventhal channeling the late great Patsy Cline at Shea's intimate Smith Theatre which shares a lobby with the 3000+ seat Shea's and the touring production of LES MISERABLES.

For over twenty-five years the Buffalo History Museum has hosted Thanksgiving weekend events at their Elmwood Avenue location.

For the first time ever, The Shaw Festival has a holiday show on the main Festival Theatre stage - HOLIDAY INN,  by Irving Berlin, directed by Shaw and Stratford superstar Kate Hennig, as the traditional A CHRISTMAS CAROL continues at the Shaw's Royal George Theatre. The Alleyway will launch their 37th annual A CHRISTMAS CAROL on December 6, and ELF continues (with only a few single tickets left) at MusicalFare Theatre.

It may defy description, but MANMADE EARTH is connecting with audiences. Created by New York City-based 600 Highwaymen, the production debuted in Buffalo a year ago as part of a larger festival hosted by Torn Space Theater. With eight young actors from Buffalo in tow, MANMADE EARTH has been on the move, including performances in front of sold-out audiences at Brooklyn's Invisible Dog Art Center. This weekend the show will conclude its local two-week run at 612 Fillmore Avenue.

Ceremonial shovels were placed in dirt by no fewer than 20 dignitaries, formally launching an ambitious project to expand the Albright-Knox Art Gallery by 30,000 square feet. The Buffalo native who offered tens of millions of his own dollars to fuel further fundraising was back in town to announce he's putting in even more, to pay tribute to the man who got the gallery's original 1905 building erected.

After a third straight year of selling out Babeville, the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation reenactment of “The Last Waltz” featuring talent from the Buffalo area is becoming a local Thanksgiving tradition. The 1978 Martin Scorsese documentary has become known as one of the greatest documentary concert films ever made. Robert McLennan, President of the Board of Directors of the Americana Music Foundation, sat down with WBFO’s Nick Lippa to talk about how it’s all come together over the years.

The August Wilson "century play" about Pittsburgh's Hill District in the 1960s opened at the Paul Robeson Theater, three and a half hours of delicious Wilson monologues, directed by Wilson devotee Ed Harris. On and off Broadway, Anthony took in several plays, including the controversial SLAVE PLAY by Jeremy O. Harris and Will Eno's THE UNDERLYING CHRIS starring Buffalo expat (and Bills fan) Lizbeth Mackay.

PTSD. Eating disorders. Depression. Inclusive Theater of Western New York is tackling the stigma around serious issues at their second annual festival of shorts. WBFO’s Nick Lippa spoke with some of the actors, some of whom who also wrote the shorts, about what audiences can expect from their performances this weekend.

Before all the "Christmas" shows begin, fine productions abound right now, including TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD at The Kavinoky and TWO TRAINS RUNNING at the Paul Robeson, as well as Mark Humphrey's THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS, THE BOYS UPSTAIRS at BUA, OH MY GOD at JRT, THE INTERROGATION ROOM at RLTP, and with an extra show Saturday at 2 added by popular demand, SHE KILLS MONSTERS at Subversive (see listings below).

The Buffalo Niagara Concert Band is holding a collaborative concert with the Buffalo’s Gay Men’s Chorus tonight to benefit Gay and Lesbian Youth Services of Western New York. Val Czamara, vice president of the band and tuba player, spoke with WBFO’s Nick Lippa on the group’s progression and how this event came together.

Once again, Drew Fornarola's "Starring Buffalo" assembled local stars (including Dudney Joseph, Jr. as "the plant"), Broadway stars, and students from Newfane, Fredonia, and Lockport, this time at Shea's 710, for LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Subversive Theatre's SHE KILLS MONSTERS continues with rave reviews. Expectations are high for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD  opening at the Kavinoky.

Buffalo's "Theater District" on Main is hoppin', from Tupper (Shea's 710 Theatre with LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS this weekend and ERMA BOMBECK: AT WIT'S END starting Tuesday) to The Alleyway (where BUA opens THE BOYS UPSTAIRS) to Shea's Smith Theater (SGT's THE TOXIC AVENGER) and down the next block to 456 Main where Road Less Traveled opens INTERROGATION ROOM.

When INTERROGATION ROOM premiered in 2003 at Ujima's Theaterloft, it changed the professional trajectory for Scott Behrend and Jon Elston. The co-founders of Road Less Traveled Productions enjoyed a growing interest in their work which sent them on the road to their current home in the Buffalo theater community. Behrend says they are reviving the play because it touches on "current, relevant themes" relating to class, race and stereotypes.

Two "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" openings tonight include Subversive's SHE KILLS MONSTERS about D&D and THE TOXIC AVENGER, Second Generation at Shea's Smith Theatre, a musical based on the 1984 movie. SUPERIOR DONUTS closes this weekend at Shea's 710 with a compelling story of cultures colliding and coming together while PRESCRIPTION MURDER: COLUMBO continues to entertain dinner theater audiences through mid-December.

The "CSI guy" is back in Western New York, with two new graphic novels ready to launch. Anthony Zuiker, creator of the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" television franchise, and his wife Michelle, a Buffalo native and schoolteacher, have been creating these books since they co-founded Zuiker Press in 2017. All their titles give voice to young authors who have championed their pain and heroics so others can learn from it.

WBFO's Marian Hetherly had a chance to catch up with Anthony Zuiker before his visit to the Rotary Club of Grand Island Wednesday evening.

A new haunted house experience is making its presence felt across Western New York. EverHaunt, in Angola, is using scares to raise money for Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Care, Kids Escaping Drugs, Operation Good Neighbor and more. EverHaunt founder Kevin Donovan took a haunted house in his garage and turned it in to a large, immersive experience with the goal of raising money for community partners.

The Broadway tour of the high-energy COME FROM AWAY is at Shea's this week (five shows remaining) with its message of our common humanity. We mourn the loss of local actor Tim Finnegan, a funny, very warm fellow who often appeared in gay activist productions (see below). And Anthony is back from NYC where he saw Matthew Lopez's THE INHERITANCE which depicts the life experience of different generations - those who lived through the height of the AIDS crisis and those who came later.

The eighth floor at City Hall was crowded for a school board meeting Wednesday night as several speakers, many Hutchinson Technical High School alumni, came to voice their concerns about the state of music education in the Buffalo Public Schools. The Buffalo Teachers Federation recently announced it would be moving forward with litigation by the end of the month because it believes certain schools are not compliant with art and music state regulations. But district officials want to make it clear they support arts education.

Paula Poundstone will light up the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts in Jamestown Saturday with her unique brand of humor. The award-winning comedienne, author, actress, podcaster and panelist on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" is celebrating 40 years in the business and still does 85 shows a year - despite years of therapy, children who come running when she pulls out her checkbook and a house full of 13 cats.