Community Building Through the Arts with Susan Handler
Por t Jer vis 2014 Ar ts Walk
The arts are a powerful force in building a sense of identity and in harmonizing and celebrating our social, religious, and communal values. They are capable of mobilizing communities, and turning neighborhoods into places of interest to their residents and to visitors to the city. It has been demonstrated over and over that investment in the arts can benefit local and state economies by stimulating commerce. The tourists that are attracted to vibrant arts communities contribute to local economies by dining in restaurants, lodging in hotels, and purchasing gifts and services in the community, so well organized art events can benefit a community in multiple ways. One such Orange County event is the Port Jervis Arts Walk. Local Port Jervis artist Dorothea Solomon conceived of this celebration sixteen years ago. Arts Walk has become a catalyst that has brought people, neighborhoods, local businesses, and government together. Up to 5,000 tourists attend traveling from as far away as Philadelphia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York City, and Boston. This year’s Arts Walk is supported by the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce, The City of Port Jervis, the River Valley Artists Guild,
Tom Lovelace & his two daughters, Danielle & Elizabeth, are The Armoni’a Band!
the Port Jervis High School Honor Society, Bank of America, Sussex Bank, Frontier Communications, Port Jervis Council for the Arts, and Majestic-Star Entertainment. Arts Walk 2014 will offer fine arts, handmade crafts, music and dance, ending the day’s events with a 9:00pm outdoor movie screening. Throughout the day the River Valley Artists Guild will provide children’s art activities. On exhibit will be several fiberglass deers from Susan Miller’s 2009 public art project, Deerest Deerpark. Performing at the event will be Obsidian, a local alternative rock band; Rick Skinner’s Lot 14 Band, a local rock and retro progressive band from Pine Bush; The Ponytails, Mark Lysogorski & the Black Dirt Sound’s accordion
Cassie Rodriguez & Kyle Kehlenbeck will be at Arts Walk showing off their work!
and synthesizer; and The Armoni’a Band, a rock band straight out of Port Jervis. Arts Walk will be held on July 19 at 11:00am. For information, contact Charlene Trotter, Executive Director of the TriState Chamber of Commerce: info@ tristatechamber.org Smiles from Port Jervis Arts Walk 2012! or call 845-856-6694.
Kids & UpFront Too!
For the first time, Port Jervis Arts Walk 2014 will span the gamut from fine art and fine craft professionals to adult students to college and high school students to kids. At press time, included are works by students from Deerpark’s Bicentennial School, the Port Jervis Library Young Artists, Port Jervis High School Art Department, SUNY Orange and SUNY New Paltz, in addition to Port Jervis, Milford and Sugar Loaf area artists also. And while in Port Jervis, be sure to stop by UpFront Exhibition Space. UpFront currently has over 40 artists of all mediums in an exhibit including the fabulous miniature oil paintings of “Little Antwan” 2.5” x 3.5” by Guillermo Caraveo artist Guillermo Caraveo, whose motto is, “Arte es mi pasión!” (“Art is my passion!”) Get up-close with them at UpFront as some are as small as 1.3” x 1.8”! UpFront is located at 31 Jersey Avenue, Port Jervis. The show runs thru July 27. For more information, contact Gordon Graff or Debbie Raia at 845-856-2727, or visit their Facebook page by searching for “UpFront Exhibition Space.”
FARCE : Necessar y and Unnecessar y , Ellenville & Monroe by Derek Leet
Necessary Farce It is a proven fact that laughter is good for your health. When we laugh, natural killer cells which destroy tumors and viruses increase, along with Gamma-interferon (a disease-fighting protein), T-cells (important for our immune system) and B-cells (which make disease-fighting antibodies). As well as lowering blood pressure, laughter increases oxygen in the blood, which also encourages healing. Laughter is great for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. It massages abdominal organs, tones intestinal functioning, and strengthens the muscles that hold the organs in place. Not only does laughter give your midsection a workout, it can benefit digestion and absorption functioning as well. It is estimated that hearty laughter can burn calories equivalent to several minutes on the rowing machine. Humor improves brain function and relieves stress. Laughter stimulates both sides of the brain to enhance learning. It eases muscle tension and psychological stress, which keeps the brain alert and allows people to retain more information. Not only that, but laughing is fun! So why not go out and enjoy a plethora of good laughs! Shadowland Theatre and Creative TheatreMuddy Water Players (CTMWP) are inviting you to laugh and lose weight. 22
Delaware & Hudson CANVAS
to unravel, and explodes into a farce of very necessary laughs. If the Ellenville police do not arrest Artistic Director Brendan Burke for his previous repetitive infractions of making his audiences Shadowland cast: laugh-so-hard-and-get-painsBrian Smith, Molly Densmore, John-Patrick Driscoll & Susan Slotoroff. Not pictured: Torsten Hillhouse, Ray Faiola and Sandy York. in-their-tumtums with his “Unnecessary Farce” door-slamming direction of farces such as Boeing “Two Cops. Three Crooks. Eight Doors! GO!” Boeing, Fully Committed, Black Comedy, Ladies Shadowland continues its string of successful Man and Lend Me a Tenor, then you can call farces with the regional premiere of Unecessary 845-647-5511 for tickets to the July 11-August Farce. Two hotel rooms, eight doors and a 3 presentation, at 157 Canal Street. crazy cast of characters propel this crime-based comedy to felonious levels of laughter. “Moonlight and Magnolias” All the hallmarks of classic farce - mistaken According to CTMWP President/Producer identities; misinterpreted signals; language Bruce Roman, who has also given us a slew of confusion; unintentional innuendo; frustrated riotous evening-filled laughs in the past, “Farce lovers; and characters urgently, earnestly pursuing is a comic dramatic work using buffoonery a goal at which they will continually, comically and horseplay and typically including crude fail - are visited upon a familiar contemporary characterization and ludicrously improbable American plot: the police procedural in Paul situations. This definition truly does apply here Slade Smith’s Unnecessary Farce, co-produced to Moonlight and Magnolias, Ron Hutchinson’s by Collier & Berger, PLLC; and Sprague & slapstick comedy.” Killeen Insurance 1939 Hollywood is abuzz. Legendary Two rookie cops and the town’s pretty producer David O. Selznick has shut down accountant are trying to catch their embezzling production of his new epic, Gone with the Wind, mayor red-handed. But things aren’t quite as a film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel. they seem, and somebody’s hired an unusual The screenplay, you see, just doesn’t work. hitman. The undercover sting operation begins So what’s an all-powerful movie mogul to
July 2014
CTMWP, Left to right: Drew Nardone, Michael Frohnhoefer, David Mossey, Kate Loftus
do? While fending off the film’s stars, gossip columnists and his own father-in-law, Selznick sends a car for famed screenwriter Ben Hecht and pulls formidable director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard of Oz. Summoning both to his office, he locks the doors, closes the shades, and on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men labor for five days to fashion a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful and beloved films of all time. “Frankly, my dears, this is one funny play, and it is directed by Donna Polichetti,” Bruce said. Tickets include dessert at intermission: apple pie, ice cream, cheese, iced tea and coffee. July 11-27 at The Playhouse at Museum Village, Route 17M, in Monroe. For tickets visit www.CTMWP.org or call 845-294-9465.