A drama about a transgender woman has won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Chilean film A Fantastic Woman has taken home the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, its only nomination.
A Fantastic Woman’s director Sebastián Lelio, thanked star Daniela Vega when accepting the award.
He said: “I want to thank the cast of the film, especially the brilliant actor Francisco Reyes Morandé and the inspiration for this movie, Daniela Vega.
“This film was made by a lot of friends and artists. I share this with all of you tonight.”
28-year-old Vega has been receiving rave reviews for her central role in the film.
Vega’s character Marina has to deal with her partner’s death and his family’s subsequent transphobia, while simultaneously trying to find her identity without her beloved Orlando.
Screening in several film festivals internationally, A Fantastic Woman had been very well received, particularly for Vega’s performance.
The magazine said she deserved “so much more than political praise,” and was one of many publications heaping compliments on the actress.
The film has been praised both for Vega’s performance and the artistic merit of the film, but for also ensuring that a transgender character was played by a transgender actress.
After his win, director Lelio said that it was critically important that the main character in the film be played by a transgender actress.
He said: “I felt that, for me, it was [a] very instinctive and strong decision knowing that I was not going to make this film without a transgender actress in main role.
“That put [the] film in a different dimension because of everything that Daniela brought to the film.”
The Season 4 IKEA Home Tour Squad Is Back & Ready to Tackle Your Biggest Design Challenges
Once again, IKEA is sending a team of design experts on the road to help America solve real home furnishing challenges.
Ad by IKEA®
After it was screened at the Berlin Film Festival, Variety called Vega’s performance “a multi-layered, emotionally polymorphous feat of acting.”
However, Vega herself missed out on a nomination for Best Actress.
As Vega took the stage at the 90th Academy Awards, she said: “Thank you for this moment. I want to invite you to open your hearts and your feelings to feel the reality, to feel love. Can you feel it?”
Sunday March 25 @ 4 pm.Occidental Center for the Arts presents: Meredith Axelrod: ‘Popular Songs from a Bygone Era’. Engaging vintage Americana songstress and instrumentalist Meredith Axelrod brings her unique pre-mic vocal style, fine guitar technique and her own charm and humor to the great old songs of ragtime, minstrel, boogie-woogie jazz , blues, country and more to OCA’s acoustic sweet spot. $15 Advance/$18 at the door. Fine refreshments for sale. Art Gallery open. Wheelchair Accessible. www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. 707-874-9392.
On the eve of the expiration of his 20th Century Fox deal, Ryan Murphy has signed a momentous multimillion-dollar deal with streaming service Netflix.
The implications of this new partnership are sure to allow Murphy to test even more boundaries and engage in even more controversy-baiting than he has in his previous anthology works, notably “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story.” Beyond a few new TV shows, Murphy now has the potential to produce films and documentaries through the Netflix Studios imprint.
With his irreverent, campy, and macabre voice, Murphy will continue to serve as an important mouthpiece for the LGBTQ+ audience, and also inflict his unique brand on users of the streaming service who might not otherwise choose to get involved in his programming.
With his latest edition of “American Crime Story” going to extremely grim lengths to accent homophobia in the 90s (which has only persisted in the present) through the lens of Andrew Cunanan’s eventual assassination of Gianni Versace, one can only imagine where Murphy’s already insidious to the average American voice might go under the increased liberty of this fresh alliance.
Although Murphy’s foray into television began with a somewhat challenged start – the WB’s “Popular” – he has always managed to get by through crafting stories with incredible mass appeal that don’t sacrifice their niche appeal.
With “Popular” on for a paltry two seasons from 1999 to 2001, perhaps no network could have predicted just how loudly Murphy would have the last laugh. With each show growing bolder and bolder – ”Glee” being a strange exception – Murphy also proved himself cinematically adept through his adaptation of Augusten Burroughs’ illustrious memoir, “Running With Scissors,” back in 2006.
With regular collaborator Brad Falchuk at his side, Murphy already has a new show for Netflix in the pipeline: “The Politician,” with gay icon Barbra Streisand rumored to be in talks to guest star.
Best of all, maybe that still shelved screenplay, “Why Can’t I Be Audrey Hepburn?,” about an Audrey-obsessed bride who gets left at the altar, might finally come to fruition now that Murphy has even more creative and budgetary free rein.
A Media Matters analysis of broadcast and cable news found that networks discussed anti-LGBTQ violence and homicides only 22 times for less than 40 minutes across seven channels in 2017, even though it was the deadliest year in hate violence against the community since at least 2012. The majority of the coverage was about two specific stories and came on just four days, and the networks rarely noted the trend of increasing anti-LGBTQ violence nationwide in their coverage.
Top trends from a year of anti-LGBTQ violence coverage on broadcast and cable TV news
Media Matters analyzed 2017 coverage of the deadliest year in anti-LGBTQ hate violence since at least 2012 on cable and broadcast TV news, flagging segments in which speakers focused on anti-LGBTQ violence or on a specific anti-LGBTQ killing. We analyzed cable TV news coverage between 6 a.m. and midnight on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC and broadcast TV news coverage on the morning shows, flagship evening news programs, and Sunday political talk shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcasting Co. Here are some of our key findings:
Across seven networks, anti-LGBTQ violence was discussed only 22 times for a total of 39 minutes and 36 seconds.
Speakers contextualized their subjects as part of an overall trend of increasing violence against the LGBTQ community in only seven of the 22 discussions.
Discussion of two stories — the death of Scout Schultz and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to send a hate crimes prosecutor to investigate the 2016 killing of Kedarie Johnson — comprised more than half of all discussions about, and time spent covering, anti-LGBTQ violence. Stories about Schultz’s death occurred over a three-day period, and stories about Johnson’s case all occurred on one day.
Though Fox News spent the most time covering anti-LGBTQ violence — at 10 minutes and 21 seconds — most of that coverage came from one 7.5-minute segment featuring a disgraced police detective who defended the police officer who shot Schultz.
Anti-LGBTQ hate homicides in 2017 were at their highest rate in more than five years, mirroring a years-long rise in anti-LGBTQ hate incidents
NCAVP finds that anti-LGBTQ murders were up by 86 percent in 2017, and the latest FBI data found an increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in 2016. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) reported that anti-LGBTQ homicides were up by 86 percent in 2017, with the number of victims growing from 28 in 2016 to 52 in 2017. Of the 52 victims, 27 identified as transgender or gender nonconforming and 22 were transgender women of color. People of color made up 71 percent of anti-LGBTQ hate homicide victims in 2017, and 67 percent of the total victims were under the age of 35. According to a report by the Human Rights Campaign and the Trans People of Color Coalition, “Transgender women are estimated to face more than four times the risk of becoming homicide victims than the general population of all women.” These findings reflect a general trend of increasing anti-LGBTQ hate crimes and violence. In November, the Human Rights Campaign reported that the FBI’s 2016 hate crime statistics showed increases in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes, noting, “Of the 6,121 incidents reported, 1,076 were based on sexual orientation bias and 124 were based on gender identity bias. These numbers reflect a two percent and nine percent increase, respectively.” [National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, January 2018; Human Rights Campaign and Trans People of Color Coalition, 2017; Human Rights Campaign, 11/13/17]
Some media have reported on the rise in anti-LGBTQ violence throughout 2017. Media have been aware of increasing violence against LGBTQ people since well before NCAVP’s January report was released. In March 2017, TheWashington Post wrote that seven transgender women had been killed only two months into the year, quoting Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) saying that the country was “certainly on pace to blow right by the record set last year.” The article also noted that “while not unprecedented, the frequency of the killings has rattled a community whose members are prone to suffering violent attacks, whether hate-based or otherwise.” That same week, Newsweek similarly reported that those seven murders put “the rate well on course to beat the previous figure of 23 reported murders” of transgender people in 2016. In June, The Daily Beast reported on NCAVP’s 2016 report, noting that the year “was the deadliest year on record for the LGBT community” and that it marked an increase in anti-LGBTQ homicides even if you didn’t count the “49 victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre” in Orlando, FL. The report added that “anti-LGBT violence shows no signs of stopping in 2017” and that the year was “on track to be the most violent on record for the U.S. transgender community.” [The Washington Post, 3/16/17; Newsweek, 3/15/17; The Daily Beast, 6/12/17]
Broadcast and cable news spent less than 40 minutes discussing anti-LGBTQ hate violence in 2017
Throughout 2017, broadcast and cable news spent a total of 39 minutes and 36 seconds discussing anti-LGBTQ hate violence. Broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcasting Co. spent a total of just over 17.5 minutes during their morning shows, flagship evening news programs, and Sunday political talk shows discussing anti-LGBTQ hate violence in 2017. Cable news networks CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, meanwhile, spent just under 22 minutes covering the topic throughout the year, based on a review of 18 hours of coverage every day between 6 a.m. and midnight. Of the total 39 minutes and 36 seconds of coverage across networks, 24.5 minutes were spent discussing just two stories — the murder of Scout Schultz and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to send a hate crimes prosecutor to investigate the death of Kedarie Johnson — accounting for more than 60 percent of the coverage. Fox News spent the most time discussing anti-LGBTQ violence, devoting 10 minutes and 21 seconds to the topic, but more than 7.5 minutes of that coverage came from one segment that included disgraced former Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mark Fuhrman defending the police officer who shot Schultz. Fuhrman became toxic during the O.J. Simpson murder trial with the discovery of hours of video tape of him using a racial epithet and was later charged with perjury for lying under oath about his language. Fox News has a history of hosting Fuhrman to discuss police violence. MSNBC had the most segments addressing the subject, but its coverage lasted less than 5.5 minutes in total, the lowest of any cable channel. In terms of broadcast networks, Fox Broadcasting Co. did not address anti-LGBTQ violence in 2017 but does not have morning or evening news programming; ABC News had the next least amount of coverage with less than 2.5 minutes. [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 9/19/17; Media Matters, 3/30/16]
Across networks, anti-LGBTQ violence was discussed only 22 times in 2017, and only seven of those reports explicitly mentioned or alluded to it as part of an overall upward trend
Throughout 2017, cable and broadcast news shows discussed anti-LGBTQ violence only 22 times. An analysis of programming between 6 a.m. and midnight on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News and on the morning shows, flagship evening news programs, and Sunday political talk shows on broadcast stations ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox Broadcasting Co. found that networks discussed hate violence against the LGBTQ community only 22 times in total in 2017. MSNBC had the most discussions, with six pieces of coverage, and ABC News and Fox Broadcasting Co. had the least coverage, with one and zero segments, respectively, although Fox does not have morning or evening news programming like the other broadcast networks.
Only seven out of the 22 discussions of anti-LGBTQ violence and its victims contextualized it as part of an overall trend of increasing violence against the LGBTQ community. Only seven segments discussing anti-LGBTQ violence and its victims mentioned or alluded to an overall growing trend in anti-LGBTQ hate violence, with all seven also noting in some way the trend of increased violence against the transgender community. All 15 discussions that failed to contextualize the trend were about specific murders of LGBTQ victims (for instance, not one of the 13 segments about Johnson or Schultz mentioned the trend). We deemed coverage as contextualizing the trend in anti-LGBTQ hate violence if it specifically mentioned an increase in anti-LGBTQ violence, acknowledged the high rates of violence against LGBTQ people, or noted several instances of anti-LGBTQ violence within a specified time frame.
Reports on the death of Scout Schultz and the investigation into Kedarie Johnson’s killing made up more than half of the coverage of anti-LGBTQ violence
Out of 22 discussions of anti-LGBTQ violence across the networks, eight were specifically about the murder of Scout Schultz. More than one-third of the discussions about anti-LGBTQ violence in 2017 were about a single case, the killing of Scout Schultz, the “bisexual, nonbinary, and intersex” president of an LGBTQ student group at Georgia Tech, who used the gender-neutral pronoun they. All eight discussions occurred between September 17 and 19, while protests were erupting on the Georgia Tech campus. A campus police officer fatally shot Schultz, who reportedly was holding a multipurpose tool with an unextended blade and saying “shoot me,” after Schultz “called 911 to report a suspicious white male with long blonde hair on campus holding a knife and possibly a gun,” according to The New York Times. Schultz had left three suicide notes in their room, and, according to the Times, their mother said that they “suffered from depression and had attempted suicide in the past.” Half of the segments were framed around the campus protests that erupted after Schultz’s murder, and of the eight discussions, only three mentioned Schultz’s LGBTQ identity. [The New York Times, 9/18/17]
Five of the 22 pieces of coverage discussing violence against the LGBTQ community were about Jeff Sessions sending a hate crimes prosecutor to Iowa to investigate the killing of Kedarie Johnson. More than 22 percent of TV news discussions in 2017 of anti-LGBTQ violence were about Attorney General Jeff Sessions sending a hate crimes prosecutor to Iowa to investigate the 2016 killing of gender-fluid black teenager Kedarie Johnson. All five discussions occurred on October 16 on cable news, with MSNBC discussing the case three times and CNN and Fox News discussing the case one time each. [The New York Times, 10/15/17, 10/26/17]
Methodology
Media Matters searched Nexis transcripts for cable TV coverage appearing between 6 a.m. and midnight on CNN and between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Fox News and MSNBC (daytime transcripts for those networks are not available on Nexis), as well as transcripts of broadcast TV news morning shows (Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and Today) flagship nightly news shows, and Sunday political talk shows on ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News between January 1, 2017, and December 31, 2017, for mentions of the words or variations of the words “LGBT,” “gay,” “transgender,” “gender identity,” “lesbian,” “bisexual,” “sexual orientation,” “gender nonconforming,” or “gender fluid” occurring within 25 words of the terms or variations of the terms “violence,” “crime,” “hate,” “attack,” “homicide,” “shoot,” “murder,” “death,” “die,” or “kill.”
We also searched for the names of all 52 anti-LGBTQ homicide victims in 2017, using the name or names listed in the NCAVP report: Mesha Caldwell, Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, Sean Ryan Hake, Savyon Zabar, Bill Denham, Dontae Lampkins, JoJo Striker, Jaquarrius Holland, Keke Collier/Tiara Richmond, Chyna Gibson/Chyna Doll Dupree, Glenser Soliman, Ciara McElveen, Alphonza Watson, Andrew Nesbitt, An Vinh Nguyen, Kenne McFadden, Bruce Garnett, Chay Reed, Mx. “Kenneth” Bostick, Earl English, Imer Alvarado, Sherrell Faulkner, Kevin Wirth, David Swartley, Matthew Murrey, Josie Berrios/Kendra Adams, Neil Rodney Smith, Ava Le’Ray Barrin, Michael “Chris” Jones, Ebony Morgan, Robert Lee Covington, Rodriguez Montez Burks, TeeTee Dangerfield, John Jolly, Jaylow MC, Juan Javier Cruz, Gwynevere River Song, Kiwi Herring, Ally Lee Steinfeld, Anthony Torres, Derricka Banner, Scout Schultz, Elizabeth Stephanie Montez, Candace Towns, Giovanni Melton, Sydney Loofe, Brooklyn BreYanna Stevenson, Brandi Seals, Shanta Myers, Brandi Mells, Kerrice Lewis, and Kaladaa Crowell. Media Matters also searched for a number of variations and potential misspellings of the victims’ names.
We also searched Nexis transcripts of Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Sunday show Fox News Sunday (the network does not have an evening or morning news program) for the same terms. Any reruns of programming were not included in analysis.
Additionally, Media Matters conducted the same searches on iQ media for the above terms and names appearing on MSNBC’s and Fox News’ programming between 6 a.m. and midnight for the same time frame, as full transcripts from shows on these networks’ daytime programming are not available on Nexis. The iQ media search of Fox News and MSNBC coverage was limited by iQ media’s transcripts.
We excluded from the study coverage of anti-LGBTQ violence in other countries such as Chechnya and Saudi Arabia, updates on past instances of anti-LGBTQ violence like the murders of Harvey Milk and Gianni Versace, and coverage of the 2016 massacre at the Pulse nightclub, an LGBTQ bar in Orlando, FL.
When we found the above terms, we included the segments if the stated topic of discussion was anti-LGBTQ violence in general or instances of anti-LGBTQ violence, such as a specific anti-LGBTQ homicide, or if there was significant discussion of the topic. We defined “significant discussion” as a back-and-forth exchange between two or more people; passing mentions were not included in the analysis.
The Sonoma International Film Festival has earned a reputation for blending Wine Country lifestyle with world-class films from around the world.
This year’s festival, which takes place March 21-25, will feature 110 films from 18 countries and 200 filmmakers. The festival will celebrate food, wine and film and, in the wake of widespread sexual harassment and assault accusations in the movie industry, it will also explore gender roles in Hollywood.
The opening night headline film is Borg vs McEnroe, which explores the story of the legendary 1980 Wimbledon match between Björn Borg and John McEnroe. The film is directed by Janus Metz and stars Sverrir Gudnason as Borg and Shia LaBeouf as McEnroe.
Two other films will headline the festival: Back to Burgundy, a French film, directed by Cédric Klapisch, about three siblings trying to save their family winery, and Chef, an Indian remake of the 2014 American hit film.
Film star Karen Allen (Animal House, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Malcolm X, The Perfect Storm, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), will grace the historic Sonoma Plaza. Allen will serve on the film jury and will participate in a panel discussion titled “Reversing Gender Inequality by 2020.” The panel will also include Academy Award-nominated actress Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, August: Osage County), actor and casting director Pamela Guest (Blue Velvet), JD Heyman, Deputy Entertainment Editor for People, Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute, and Ingrid Rudefors, former head of the Stockholm Film Commission.
Additional star power will be provided by actor and director Ed Begley, Jr. (Ghostbusters, Better Call Saul, Arrested Development), who also serves on the film jury.
As usual, food and drink will rule at the festival. Local restaurants including Oso, the girl & the fig, and Umbria will serve small bites paired with wine from Gloria Ferrer, Petroni, Adastra and more. There will be parties from opening to closing night at the backlot located just blocks from the Sonoma Plaza.
Thursday, March 22, features a unique five-course dinner. Each course will be prepared by a celebrity chef and will be paired with a short film. Foodie stars include Dominique Crenn of San Francisco, Evan Funke (Felix Trattoria) from LA, and two local favorites: John McReynolds (Stone Edge Farms) and John Toulze (the girl & the fig).
The Sonoma International Film Festival runs March 21-25 in Sonoma. Tickets start at $35. sonomafilmfest.org
Transcendence Theatre Company, creators and producers of the award-winning “Broadway Under the Stars,” celebrates the talents and tenacity of female Broadway professionals with its premiere of “The Ladies of Broadway,” presented in March 2018 with performances in San Rafael and Santa Rosa, Calif.
Transcendence’s “The Ladies of Broadway” features seven noted and accomplished female artists performing favorite Broadway show tunes with career tales and triumphs of their Broadway experiences in a dynamic, engaging and entertaining performance of music and empowerment. The show will also include musical salutes to Broadway trailblazers including Ethel Merman, Bernadette Peters and Audra McDonald. Be inspired by the impact of women on the Great White Way in this brand new musical revue for all ages.
Broadway professionals scheduled to appear in Transcendence Theatre Company’s “The Ladies of Broadway” include Meggie Cansler (Finian’s Rainbow, The Apple Tree, Wicked); Lindsay Chambers (Legally Blonde, Hairspray, Lysistrata Jones); Jennifer DiNoia (Wicked, National Tour of Mamma Mia); Amy Hillner Larsen (National Tour of Hairspray, National Tour of Priscilla Queen of the Desert); Sydney Morton (Motown the Musical, Memphis, Evita, American Psycho); Kristin Piro (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, An American In Paris, Rocky, Catch Me If You Can); and Laurie Wells (Mamma Mia, National Tour of An American In Paris).
“The Ladies of Broadway” is directed by Eric Jackson (Young Frankenstein, Thoroughly Modern Millie). The creative team also includes Associate Director, Leslie McDonel(American Idiot); and Music Director, Susan Draus (Good Vibrations, National Tour of Beautiful, The Carole King Musical).
San Rafael performances are 7:30 p.m.Saturday – March 17 and 2 p.m.Sunday – March 18, 2018 at the Marin Center’s Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium. Purchase tickets online at www.LadiesOfBroadway.comor call 415-473-6800.
Santa Rosa performances are 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.Saturday – March 24 and 2 p.m.Sunday – March 25, 2018. Purchase tickets online at www.LadiesOfBroadway.comor call 707-546-3600. Tickets can also be purchased at the Box Office at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, open daily 12 to 6 p.m. at 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa.
General tickets prices are $29 to $89. VIP tickets, which include pre-show festivities, premium California wines and artisan hors d’oeuvres, are $129 to $139.
For more information about Transcendence Theatre Company visit www.BestNightEver.org
Production sponsors for “The Ladies of Broadway” include The Press Democrat and Daryl Reese, Attorney at Law
More About Transcendence Theatre Company:
Based in Sonoma County, California, Transcendence Theatre Company is an award-winning, nonprofit arts organization comprised of artists with professional experience from Broadway, film and television. The company’s headliners have included Sutton Foster and Megan Hilty. Featured performers have appeared in Broadway productions including “The Book of Mormon,” “Mamma Mia,” “Les Misérables,” “Chicago,” “La Cage Aux Follies,” “Gypsy,” “Hairspray,” “Follies,” “42nd Street,” “White Christmas,” “Mary Poppins” and “Wicked.” Transcendence Theatre Company specializes in producing high caliber Broadway concerts in distinctive Sonoma County locations – from its primary home within the majestic open-air ruins of the historic winery in Jack London State Historic Park to other remarkable and stunning settings throughout wine country and the community. Since its inception in 2011, Transcendence Theatre Company productions have been experienced by 121,000 patrons and raised over $351,000 for Jack London State Historic Park.
Joachim Trier’s follow-up to his much-praised movie, Louder Than Bombs, has found much acclaim. It’s the sort of intriguing film that builds tension by living in a moral grey area and maintaining an enigmatic, sexual air.
Thelma (Eili Harboe) is a young woman who’s led an incredibly sheltered life. Her strongly religious parents have completely controlled her existence, but now she’s getting her first taste of freedom by going away to university. As she settles into college life – which still includes the need to contact her parents everyday so they can keep an eye on her – she starts to have feelings for one of her female friends.
While she initially tries to deny what’s happening, it begins to unlock deeply suppressed psychokinetic powers which she may not be able to control. They are powers which could be extremely dangerous if fully unleashed.
Thelma is a movie that starts as it means to go on, with a father and his daughter hunting in the woods. All seems fine until the dad points the gun at his child. From there the movie builds an eerie, unsettled feel, where what should be simple and natural becomes dangerous and full of tension.
It would be easy to dismiss it as a Carrie rip-off, but it’s more than that. It is a modern examination of suppression and denial, looking at how things such as religion can be used to avoid dealing with a problem, and ultimately make things worse. It presents a complex morality, designed to get the viewer thinking. A few years ago, Thelma’s emerging sexuality would probably have been presented salaciously and as just another ‘symptom’ of her strangeness. However, Trier carefully presents her as an innocent – despite what we learn about her. Her sexual awakening is shown as something beautiful that is threatened with destruction not by the supernatural powers inside her, but by the control and repression that has been thrust upon her which means she now has no idea what she’s dealing with.
It is at times unnerving and often intriguing, using some beautiful imagery to something something both familiar and otherworldly. That intimacy between the mundane and the strange also allows it to build empathy for its central character, played sublimely by Eili Harboe. It feels like an extremely timely movie – an allegory for sexuality, female power and the generational divide. At times it may have uncomfortable things to say about those things, but it’s a tantalising and sometimes darkly humorous movie that lingers in the brain. There are also echoes of the effect of ‘gay cure’ therapies and the devastation they can wreak, which goes far beyond the person ‘cured’.
Overall Verdict: A haunting, morally complex and sometimes tense movie that takes modern issues to the edge with empathy and supernatural eeriness.
Sunday, March 18, 2018 @ 4 pm. Occidental Center for the Arts presents The Life and Art of Isadora Duncan. Director and solo dancer Lois Flood (www.diablodancetheater.com ) brings the iconic dancer and revolutionary feminist to dramatic life with Duncan’s original choreography, classical costumes, exquisite music by Chopin, Gluck and Shubert, and historical stories. Celebrate International Women’s History Month at OCA! $15 Advance/$18 at the door. Fine Refreshments for sale. Wheelchair Accessible . Art Gallery open. . www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. 707-874-9392
Transcendence Theatre Company, creators and producers of the award-winning “Broadway Under the Stars,” celebrates the talents and tenacity of female Broadway professionals with its premiere of “The Ladies of Broadway,” presented in March 2018 with performances in San Rafael and Santa Rosa, Calif.
Transcendence’s “The Ladies of Broadway” features seven noted and accomplished female artists performing favorite Broadway show tunes with career tales and triumphs of their Broadway experiences in a dynamic, engaging and entertaining performance of music and empowerment. The show will also include musical salutes to Broadway trailblazers including Ethel Merman, Bernadette Peters and Audra McDonald. Be inspired by the impact of women on the Great White Way in this brand new musical revue for all ages.
Broadway professionals scheduled to appear in Transcendence Theatre Company’s “The Ladies of Broadway” include Meggie Cansler (Finian’s Rainbow, The Apple Tree, Wicked); Lindsay Chambers (Legally Blonde, Hairspray, Lysistrata Jones); Jennifer DiNoia (Wicked, National Tour of Mamma Mia); Amy Hillner Larsen (National Tour of Hairspray, National Tour of Priscilla Queen of the Desert); Sydney Morton (Motown the Musical, Memphis, Evita, American Psycho); Kristin Piro (Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, An American In Paris, Rocky, Catch Me If You Can); and Laurie Wells (Mamma Mia, National Tour of An American In Paris).
“The Ladies of Broadway” is directed by Eric Jackson (Young Frankenstein, Thoroughly Modern Millie). The creative team also includes Associate Director, Leslie McDonel (American Idiot); and Music Director, Susan Draus (Good Vibrations, National Tour of Beautiful, The Carole King Musical).
San Rafael performances are 7:30 p.m.Saturday – March 17 and 2 p.m.Sunday – March 18, 2018 at the Marin Center’s Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium. Purchase tickets online at www.LadiesOfBroadway.com or call 415-473-6800.
Santa Rosa performances are 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.Saturday – March 24 and 2 p.m.Sunday – March 25, 2018. Purchase tickets online at www.LadiesOfBroadway.com or call 707-546-3600. Tickets can also be purchased at the Box Office at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts, open daily 12 to 6 p.m. at 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa.
General tickets prices are $29 to $89. VIP tickets, which include pre-show festivities, premium California wines and artisan hors d’oeuvres are $129 to $139.
For more information about Transcendence Theatre Company visit www.BestNightEver.org
Friday, March 16 , 2018 @ 8 pm. The Black Brothers Band ! OCA is proud to welcome back the charismatic scions of Ireland’s famous singing Black Family- Michael and Shay Black- and their fine band, featuring fiery fiddle virtuoso Bobbi Nikles and famed pianist (‘The Commitments’ soundtrack) Eamonn Flynn. Don’t miss their exciting mix of Dublin street songs, music hall songs and historical ballads with their trademark close harmony and superb musicianship; plus infectious humor and witty stories, sing-along choruses and up-tempo reels and jigs on St. Patrick’s Day weekend at OCA! $22 Advance/$25 Door. Beer, wine and pub grub for sale. Wheelchair Accessible. Art Gallery open. www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. 707-874-9392.