Ron Klopfanstein’s Hot Seat: Media Monday Arts & Entertainment News for the week of Monday, April 15 – Sunday, April 21
For more on Hot Seat: Media Monday, go to: UticaPhoenix.net/MediaMonday
The Tramontane Cafe presents Fish & Friends: A Comedy Showcase on Friday, April 19th, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 and available at the door. You can play Dungeons & Dragons on Saturday, April 20th, from 4 to 8 p.m. The fee to play is $25, pre-registration is required, and players must be 17 years or older. Also, on Saturday, Tammy from Oh My Fabulous Dog will be on hand with a pop-up sale of her dog treats and car fresheners.
Noah Dinerstein with special guest Jonah Fox on Friday, April 26th at 7 pm. Dinerstein will feature original material and behind-the-scenes stories. Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 same day.
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/TRAMONTANECAFE
Programming Note: Robin Raabe, owner of the Tramonte Cafe, will be my guest on Hot Seat: Media on Monday, April 22, 2024.
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Cinema Capitol will present a special 2024 Trailer Preview Show with movie trailers for upcoming releases on Thursday, April 25th, at 7 pm. This event is FREE.
Now that Oscar season has come and gone, a new season at the Cinema Capitol is about to begin, and the public is invited to come and see what the Cinema Capitol has in store for the new year! This evening consists of a showcase of trailers for upcoming films that may appear at the cinema in the next year. Upon entry, each attendee will be given a paper with each title and invited to vote on what they want to see. The 2024 Preview Show will also serve as a kick-off to the cinema’s milestone tenth anniversary, with a sneak peek at the movies that may be chosen to celebrate that anniversary throughout the rest of this year.
This weekend, Cinema Capitol will be showing American Dreamer with Peter Dinklage and Shirley MacLaine, and Love Lies Bleeding with Kristen Stewart. Show times are 4 pm and 7 pm on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and 1 pm and 4 pm on Sundays.
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/RomeCinemaCapitol
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The Dunham Public Library is holding a Tolkien Scavenger Hunt from Monday, April 22nd, to Saturday, April 27th. The activity is centered around J. R. R. Tolkien’s book The Hobbit. Participants will be encouraged to use their imagination and creativity to complete challenges. The more “outside-the-box” solutions, the better! The scavenger hunt will not be restricted to the library; participants can go to any location they want to find what they are looking for.
Also, their Banned Book Club will meet on Wednesday, May 8th, from 3 to 5:30 p.m., for participants ages 16 or older. Each month, they focus on banned and “challenged” books to encourage people to “unlock [their] right to read!” For May, they will be discussing The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/DunhamPublicLibrary
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The Hamilton College Theatre Department will present the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning masterpiece Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches on Wednesday, April 17th, and Friday, April 19th, at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday, April 20th, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for the public, $6 for senior citizens, $4 for students, and free for Hamilton College students.
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Keaton & Lloyd Bookshop will celebrate Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday, April 27th, from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Join them to celebrate indie bookstores and their cultural, economic, and educational contributions to local communities. The festivities will include a bookish art gallery featuring local artists, discounts, representatives from area non-profit organizations, and all-new Keaton & Lloyd merchandise. You will win a special prize if you wear your Keaton & Lloyd shirt!
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/keatonandlloyd
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The Kirkland Art Center presents a KAC Live Concert with Yacouba Sissoka on Friday, April 19th at 7:30 pm. Master musician Yacouba Sissoko from Mali has performed with many famous Western musicians, including Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, Leroy Jenkins, and Leni Sterm. Tickets are $20.
They will also be offering a class in Lighting in Photography with Wendy Wang for students aged 12-16 on Saturday, April 27th, Saturday, May 4th, and Saturday, May 11th, from 12:45 pm to 3:45 pm. This is for participants with some to no experience with cameras. Students don’t need a professional camera to be in this class. They will learn the concept of lighting and have hands-on experience with studio lighting. Participants will get the opportunity to take portraits and print out some of their favorites at the end of the class. For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/KACenter
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The MVCC Theater program will present three short plays by American playwright Thornton Wilder. An MVCC student will direct each play. They include Queens of France, directed by Kelsey Zimmerman; Love and How to Cure It, directed by Gianna LaBella; and Such Things Only Happen in Books, directed by Rachel Hartman. Showtimes are 7:30 on Thursday, April 18th, and Friday, April 19th, and 2 pm on Saturday, April 20th. Tickets are $10 for the public and free for MVCC students. For more information, go to: https://www.mvcc.edu/news/2024-04-02-theater-program-spring-production.php
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Players of Utica is holding auditions for Kinderkrankenhaus on Saturday, April 20th, from 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday, April 21st, from 1 to 5 pm. They are specifically seeking neurodivergent actors of all ages for roles because of the themes of the play.
In a vaguely familiar time and place, children gathered inside the grey walls of a hospital are given diagnoses they don’t understand and told to work towards correcting their ills or face the consequences. Kinderkrankenhaus explores neurodiversity, the pathologizing of difference, and the complexity of labels in a world where the unspeaking are seen as unthinking. Can the children learn to live in this place where concepts like love are indefinable, but they are still expected to know when something does not conform to its boundaries?
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/PlayersOfUtica
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Quiches & Queens, a Drag Brunch to benefit Little Falls Community Outreach Organizers say, “Bring your hearts, laughter, love, and kindness…Oh, and don’t forget those dollars! We have the greatest community, so let’s all come together for an amazing event and fundraiser! Your $30 ticket includes a great brunch and show with the amazing High Tea Honeys (Jianna Romano, MsKitten Kaboodle, and Katarina Mirage)! The first 48 ticket holders through the door on the day of the drag brunch will receive their very own SWAG BAG!! There will be door prizes, a basket raffle, 50/50, and more!” Tickets are $30, and the event is for people 16 years or older. For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/events/690008039936172
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Rome Community Theater presents The Murder Room on Friday, April 19th, and Saturday, April 20th, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 21st, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students.
The Murder Room is a fabulous mystery farce about newlyweds Edgar and Mavis. Two days after their wedding, Edgar discovers that Mavis—a nasty piece of work—is less than unfaithful, leading to all sorts of mysterious mayhem.
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/romecommunitytheater
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The Treehouse Reading and Arts Center is hosting a Visit with Mario of Super Mario Brothers to celebrate Independent Bookstore Day! Kids can meet Mario, share a Mario story, and you can get their picture taken with him, and they’ll have some games and crafts! The event is FREE, but they ask that interested people register in advance. For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/treehousereadingandarts
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The Uptown Center for Creative Arts hosts an improv event every Thursday at 7 p.m. They invite people to attend “an open-to-all, pay-what-you-can, drop-in improv class followed by a community improv jam where everyone is invited to play, with plenty of opportunity for some stage reps!” They also have Comedy Open Mic nights every Wednesday; sign-ups begin at 7 pm, and the show starts at 8 pm.
Also, on Saturday, April 27th, they will host an All-Day Improv Intensive Masterclass and Student Showcase with Rich Talerico. Students will learn to initiate scenes, give and use organic gifts, create object work, and dig deeper into character and story. An evening showcase for family and friends will follow the all-day class.
On Sunday, April 28th, they will host a Comedy Writing Boot Camp and Student Showcase with Rich Talerico, an award award-winning television writer who will share insights and writing techniques from his 20+ years in late-night TV (SNL, MADtv, Key & Peele, The Tonight Show) and from having written five resident company shows for Second City in Chicago. Students will learn how to write jokes, how to write blackouts, how to brainstorm and pitch their ideas, and how to outline a scene/story structure. How to tell a story, and how to come up with endings. The class will cover a variety of sketch types. Students will learn how to contribute to others’ work, a vital writer’s room skill. A read-through for friends and family will follow.
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/utcany
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Utica University Theatre will present Student Directed One Act Plays on Friday, April 26th, and Saturday, April 27th, at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $10 for the public and $5 for students.
For more information, go to: https://www.facebook.com/UticaUniversityTheatre
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Ron Klopfanstein is a multimedia investigative journalist, news and features editor, and creative content producer for the Utica Phoenix digital platform and 95.5 FM “The Heat” broadcast and streaming. He also hosts the Hot Seat: Media Monday every Monday at 5 pm, broadcast on 95.5 FM and streaming at 955TheHeat.com. Like him at Facebook.com/ReadRonKlopfanstein, Follow him at Threads.net/@RonKlopfanstein, Instagram.com/RonKlopfanstein, Twitter.com/RonKlopfanstein, Tiktok.com/@ronklopfanstein, and subscribe to his channel at YouTube.com/@RonKlopfanstein. Read all his work at Muckrack.com/ron-klopfanstein.
