Arts fest opens Tuesday at SRU
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock University's annual four-week Kaleidoscope Arts Festival will help celebrate the university's 125th anniversary through concerts, plays, art, lectures, films and dance.
The festival will open Tuesday and continue through May 4.
It includes both free and low-cost events.
Kicking off the festival Tuesday will be a theater performance and a concert.
“Electra: An American Gothic,” a work adapted by SRU theater professor David Skeele and directed by Gordon Phetteplace, associate professor of theater, will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the University Union. Tickets are $12 for the general public and $7 for students. The play will go on two additional days.
In Skeele's version, the Sophocles classic Greek tragedy has been brought into an 1880s post-Civil War American landscape. In August, the play will be presented in Scotland as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A Steel Pan Ensemble performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Swope Music Hall. Admission is $5 for the general public and $3 for students.
More events in the arts festival are:
Wednesday“Electra: An American Gothic,” 7:30 p.m., University UnionSRU Jazz Combos, 7:30 p.m., Sheehy Theater in Maltby Center, $5 for the general public and $3 for students
April 17Blisstaken, a three-piece poetry/jazz performance group focusing on the creation of art through improvisation as well as standard blues and jazz tunes, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $5Uncommon Hour Opening Celebration, 12:30 p.m., Boozle Dining Hall. Guest artists will offer performances sponsored by SRU's College of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts.“Electra: An American Gothic,” 12:30 p.m., University Union
April 18Andrew Loose and Michael Zech, both sophomore music majors, offering an array of music from serious classical to upbeat jazz on trumpet and tuba, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall
<B>April 22</B>Third annual Frederick Douglass Sixty Second Lecture Series, 12:30 p.m., Sheehy Theater in Maltby Center. Douglass, a former slave, distinguished orator, journalist, author and statesman, presented numerous lectures. The planned remarks will cover art, dance, history, English, political science, public health, anthropology and geography.SRU Flute Choir and SRU Chamber Flutes, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $5 for the general public and $3 for students<B>April 23</B>Nikki Rosato, who will be conducting interviews and gathering information about respondents' geographic origins which she will translate into a large “Connections” piece, 5 p.m. lecture, Behavioral Science Building 111<B>April 24</B>Art Beyond Galleries, 4 p.m., University UnionStudent Art Exhibit opening reception, 5 p.m., University Union<B>April 25</B>Laundry and Bourbon and Lonestar, two comic plays offering a glimpse of life in a 1970s Texas town, 7:30 p.m., University Union, $12 for the general public and $7 for SRU studentsDavid Maslanka, an American composer, with SRU music faculty and students in concert, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $5 for the general public and $3 for SRU students<B>April 26</B>Earth Day celebration at the Macoskey Center, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain location: University Union)Nikki Rosato “Connections” Revealed, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Macoskey Center (rain location: University Union)Roberto Sanchez Pierola, playwright, poet and performance artist's Master Class, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., University UnionKelsey Eisenhauer, a senior music education and music therapy major, flute recital, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall<B>April 27</B>Laundry and Bourbon and Lonestar, 3 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $12 and $7Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble, 3 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $5SRU Concert Choir presenting Paul Basler's “Songs of Faith” along with SRU's Chamber Singers, Women's Choir and Wind Ensemble, 7 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $5 for the general public and $3 for SRU students<B>April 28</B>“Blood Brother,” documentary by Steve Hooper and winner of the 2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award, 5:30 p.m., Advanced Technology and Science HallLaundry and Bourbon and Lonestar, 7:30 p.m., University Union, $12 and $7<B>April 29Uncommon Hour with Roberto Sanchez Pierola, 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., BSB AuditoriumSRU Saxophone Quartets and Ensemble, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $5 for the general public and $3 for SRU studentsLaundry and Bourbon and Lonestar, 7:30 p.m., University Union, $12 and $7<B>April 30</B>Too Many Sopranos, comic opera, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music HallLaundry and Bourbon and Lonestar, 7:30 p.m., University Union, $12 and $7<B>May 1</B>Reid Davenport and the Wheelchair Diaries, documentary, 5:30 p.m., 105 Vincent Science CenterJazz Ensemble and Jazz Lab Band, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $5 for the general public and $3 for studentsLaundry and Bourbon and Lonestar, 7:30 p.m., University Union, $12 and $7<B>May 3</B>“Our Last Fifteen Minutes: Senior Synthesis Dance Concert,” 2 and 5 p.m., Swope Music Hall, $7 for general public and $5 for SRU studentsRoberto Sanchez Pierola Master Class, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., University Union, with artist reception with Pierola at 7 p.m. in the Alumni House<B>May 4 </B>Children's Workshop with the Jammin Divas concert, 1:30 p.m., University UnionJammin Divas performance as part of the SRU Performing Arts Series, traditional and contemporary original folk music, 4 p.m., University Union, $20 for adults, $18 for senior citizens; $15 for youths age 17 and younger, and $8 for SRU studentsSRU Orchestra concert featuring Schubert's “Unfinished Symphony,” a Strauss polka and Sousa's 1889 “Washington Post March,” played in honor of SRU's 125th anniversary, 7:30 p.m., Swope Music Hall.A full list is available at www.sru.edu/academics/colleges/chfpa/kaleidoscope/pages/home.aspx.
