Arts This Week: Films, Puppets, Guitars, & Broadway (Part 1)

Much to see and hear this week and one can not be in 2 places at once, so here's a heads-up.

Wednesday October 14:
The Buttonwood Tree presents "Evening Oasis: A Night of Belly Dance" featuring Desideria, Aziz Al-Tawil and Rasa Vitalia at 7:30 p.m. Hosted by Laura Lawton and Kitti Field, the evening is entertaining and educational with performers from throughout the Northeast. For more information, call 347-4957.

The Distinguished Writers Program at Wesleyan presents poet and teacher Bernadette Mayer at 8 p.m. in The Russell House, 350 High Street. The author of over 20 books of poetry, Mayer has been an active poet and editor for 3 decades and writes pieces that have been described as "witty", "untidy" and "highly involving." The event is free and open to the public. A reception follows the reading and gives one the opportunity to meet and chat with the poet.

Here's a short work by Ms. Mayer:

"I was one of the skunks"

i was one of the skunks

that lived in your bungalow

i was beautiful to behold but

you took me to the schodack cemetery

well, it was the nassau animal guy who did

& he was nowhere near as good looking as I

Thursday October 15:
The Russell Library's Film Series, " Gutter to Penthouse", presents "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", the 1932 Mervyn LeRoy directed movie starring Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell and Helen Vinson.
The story revolves around a soldier who, upon returning from World War I, can't find steady work and accidentally becomes involved in a robbery and is sentenced to 10 years hard labor. He escapes to Chicago and becomes a successful businessman. His girlfriend finds out his secret and blackmails him into marrying her. He does so but falls in love with another woman and, when he asks his wife for a divorce, she turns him into the authorities. The movie has been deemed a classic and is quite an artistic success.
The screening takes place at 12noon in the Hubbard Room and is free and open to the public. For more information, call 347-2528, extension 135.

"Common Ground: The Middletown International Film Festival" continues at 7 p.m. in the Hubbard Room of the Russell Library with "Chungking Express", the 1994 Chinese film directed and written by Wang Kar-wei. The movie tells 2 unconnected stories one right after the other and each revolving around a Hong Kong policeman. The cast includes Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Valerie Chow. The screening is free and open to the public. Call the number in the paragraph above for more information.


The Elia Kazan Centennial Celebration continues at the Wesleyan Center for Film Studies with an 8 p.m. screening of one of the director's most celebrated films, "On The Waterfront." Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, and Eva Marie Saint, the 1954 classic was filmed on location in Hoboken, New Jersey, and blends social commentary with a "gangster story" plot line. Brando, in one of his most famous roles, plays an ex-boxer ("I coulda been a contender") who takes a "dive" in the ring and ends up working for a union boss. With the help of a priest (Malden) and his girlfriend (Saint), the boxer decides to take on the union.
The screening takes place in the Goldsmith Family Cinema, Washington Terrace, and is free & open to the public. For more information, call 685-2220.

Yet one more film on this crowded day of cinema events is the 2009 documentary "Disfarmer: A Portrait of America" to be shown at 8 p.m. in the CFA Hall, formerly the CFA Cinema. Released earlier this year, the film, written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Martin Lavut, features people from Heber Springs, Arkansas, (where portrait photographer Mike Disfarmer settled and worked) and the gallery owners and photography experts who brought Disfarmer's work to the rest of the world. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, go to www.wesleyan.edu/cfa.

Later this week, we'll look at "Disfarmer", the puppet theater play that can be seen this Friday and Saturday in the CFA Theater as well as the first show in the Greater Middletown Concert Association's 2009-10 series ("Broadway Live!" on Saturday, 7:30 p.m. at Middletown High School), live music at The Buttonwood (Katie Pearlman/Rupert Wates on Friday, guitarist Sinan Bakir on Saturday) and the Crowell Concert Series presentation of Cuban pianist Omar Sosa & his Afreecanos Quartet (Saturday.) And more - stay tuned!