Weekend Midtown Atlanta Arts Abound

Another weekend is almost upon us and as usual, it will be another arts-filled one in Midtown Atlanta. Want to have your arts event featured at Midtown Patch? See this easy-to-follow video tutorial here that shows users of any Patch site how to post an announcement and/or events, including full press releases, by using the tools available to all users on the Patch. And it’s FREE!

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The Atlanta Opera’s 24-Hour Opera Project Showcase is this weekend as selected composers, lyricists, stage directors and opera singers – randomly put into teams – will have 24 hours to compose, stage and rehearse a 7-10-minute opera.

The composers and lyricists will have 12 hours to write the opera. At the end of 12 hours, the pieces will be assigned to a stage director, who will draft singers from a pool of applicants, and have eight hours to rehearse before presenting the scenes in a showcase concert 24 hours after the project begins.

The final results will be presented in a live performance and webcast hosted by WABE’s John Lemley. The mini-operas will be evaluated by a panel of performing arts industry leaders, and prizes will be awarded to the winning team, with an additional prize going to the audience favorite.

Meet the participants here and see highlight’s from last year’s 24-Hour Opera Project here.

The kick-off to the event will be held on Friday at 5 p.m. at Midtown’s First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta located at 1328 Peachtree Street. The Showcase performance and live webcast from The Atlanta Opera Center, located at 1575 Northside Drive, will be on Saturday beginning at 7 p.m.

Both the kick-off event and the showcase performance are free and open to the public. For more information, please call 404-881-8883 or e-mail education@atlantaopera.org.

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"The Producers," the winningest musical in Broadway history, opens at the Fox Theatre on Friday and runs through Jan. 31. Produced by Theater of the Stars as is part of its 60th Season, the production's principal cast members will be Michael McCormick (Max), Atlanta native and former Woodward Academy student Stacey Todd Holt (Leo Bloom), Tom Alan Robbins (Franz), Patrick Boyd (Carmen Ghia) and Laura Seibert (Ulla).

The eight performances are as follows:  Friday, January 25 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, January 26 at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; Sunday, January 27 at 1:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.; Tuesday, January 29 at 8:00 p.m.; Wednesday, January 30 at 8:00 p.m and Thursday, January 31 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets range from $25 - $65 and are on sale now at www.FoxATLTix.com or by calling 855-ATL-TIXX (855-285-8499). Half-price tickets are available for the Tuesday and Wednesday performances by using the code “AJC”. 

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Just opened at the High Museum of Art is the exhibition “Gogo: Nature Transformed” that will be on display until July 7, 2013.

The exhibit celebrates the work of acclaimed Georgia-based jewelry designer Janet Ferguson, known worldwide as Gogo. Ferguson’s first museum exhibition presents the evolution of her creativity, from the genesis of her rattlesnake-inspired clasp and logo to the exploration of a single form, such as bracelets inspired by various flora, fauna and sea life.

The exhibition presents 63 works, including some of Ferguson’s most recognized pieces of jewelry and home wares, examples of her early natural bone designs, and the debut of two new pieces created specifically for the High: a six by eight foot wall sculpture inspired by New England seaweed and an ottoman inspired by a sea urchin.

“‘Gogo: Nature Transformed’ provides an opportunity for all who visit the High to be transported into an unexpected natural world inspired by Georgia’s own Cumberland Island,” Michael E. Shapiro, the High’s Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr., director, said in a release. “In celebrating this Georgia artist, we look forward to introducing many visitors to Gogo Ferguson’s work and welcoming her many enthusiastic supporters. From Georgia’s rural coast to the biggest cities around the globe, Gogo Ferguson’s iconic designs are now among the jewelry collections of many of the world’s most recognized women and men.”

See here for museum hours and ticket information. 

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Across the street from the High, the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) is presenting The South’s Next Wave: Design Challenge. It’s part exhibition, part competition as the exhibition pairs designers of interior spaces with object designers to create imaginative vignettes throughout the museum.

Curators David Goodrowe and Tim Hobby co-founders of Aesthetic Identity Design firm Goodrowe | Hobby have directed the work of set /interior designers and of object designers in fields from furniture to fashion who exemplify the myriad new directions the Southern aesthetic has taken.

Each vignette is technologically enabled with the Skovr app, allowing viewers to access facts and video about the designers while in the galleries or from their own homes. During the run of the exhibition, MODA visitors will be asked to choose their favorite vignette and object. Winning earns the designer more than bragging rights – there is a cash prize, too.

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At the Center for Puppetry Arts, the final performances of "Brother Coyote and Sister Fox" by Thistle Theatre will take place this weekend. Tricksters will delight in this bilingual adaptation of a traditional Mexican folktale. Brother Coyote wants one thing and one thing only: to catch and eat one of Dona Conchita’s plump chickens. But quick-witted Sister Fox is always one step ahead of him, waiting to trick him with clever schemes in order to keep all the chickens to herself!  

Included in the ticket cost is admission to the Create-A-Puppet Workshop, where visitors can experience the thrill of puppetry by creating their own Cool Coyote Hand Puppet or pick up a Create-A-Puppet To-Go Kit to continue the fun at home.

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At the Alliance Theatre,  the play “Good People” continues through Feb. 10. It’s about, well, good people. Not great people, mind you, but real people. Flawed-but-decent people. And it's about where they came from, where they ended up, and how the day-to-day choices they made (or didn't make) and breaks they got (or didn't get) put them there.

"Good People" brings the idea of fate out of the cosmos and into South Boston, tackling questions of loyalty and what it means to escape your circumstances without also abandoning your roots. But even a thousand miles from South Boston, Atlanta audiences will be immediately familiar with the characters and themes.

See dates and showtimes here.

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The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum’s current exhibition - "Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture, American Jewish Identity" - examines the significance of Jewish meals. Organized by the Jewish Museum of Baltimore, this exhibit will include Atlantan’s opinions, recollections, photographs and memorabilia of cooking and eating “Jewishly” as well as others from all around the United States.

Also on Sunday, the museum will host Auschwitz survivor, Helen Fromowitz Weingarten from Romania for "Bearing Witness: Unforgettable Stories from the Holocaust." Weingarten will speak beginning at 2 p.m. and see here for more information.

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On Thursday and Saturday night, Vadim Gluzman, an Israeli violinist who appears regularly with major international orchestras, will make his Atlanta Symphony Orchestra debut performing Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Japanese guest conductor Kazushi Ono will lead the Orchestra in the Overture to Weber’s Euryanthe and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3, “Scottish.”

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The Ansley Park Playhouse will again present Atlanta's longest running comedy, "Peachtree Battle." What happens when a wealthy socialite’s son brings home his surprise fiancée – a Hooter’s waitress? Non-stop hilarity!

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The final performances of "The Tempest" are this weekend at New American Shakespeare Tavern, located at 499 Peachtree Street. With an authentic British pub menu and a broad selection of Irish ales and premium brews, the Shakespeare Tavern is a place to eat, drink, and nourish the soul.

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On the westside, Actor's Express is presenting "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson." This hilarious, sexy explosion of rock and roll re-imagines our nation’s seventh president as a rock god badass maverick who fights for the common man, wrestles the country away from Native Americans – and looks HOT in a pair of skinny jeans. Uproarious and provocative, it’s a theatrical thrill ride that will rock your world!

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Also on the westside of the city the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center is showcasing "Alix Pearlstein: The Dark Pavement." Alix Pearlstein’s work in video and performance brings together groups of actors to explore scripted and improvised movements and dialogue. The results possess a sense of purpose and restraint, as the camera and participating bodies negotiate space together.

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And if you're looking for a good chuckle, check out what Laughing Skull Lounge has to offer on Peachtree Street or Whole World Theatre on Spring Street.

By the way, former Whole World performer Michael Snow will be on "Survivor" beginning next month on CBS. See more about him here.