Arts Briefs: Pasadena Playhouse to honor actress Jane Fonda, record producer Richard Perry
A Night in Pasadena
Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda and record producer Richard Perry will be honored at the Pasadena Playhouse in a fundraising event to be hosted by Sandra Tsing Loh, writer and star of the show “The Madwoman in the Volvo.” The theme of the night is “A Night in the Catskills.”
The April 30 event will take its setting from the theater’s current production of “Casa Valentina” by Harvey Fierstein and directed by David Lee, which is set in the Catskills of 1962. In a statement, Playhouse artistic director Sheldon Epps praised both honorees and noted that “both of them have strong roots in the theater and a great love of our art form. Richard’s skill, expertise and acumen were essential to the success of our production of ‘Baby It’s You’ and most certainly contributed to that musical’s transfer to a Tony-nominated Broadway run. I so greatly admire Jane’s great success in practically every area that a life can touch — artistically, socially and politically.”
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Among the performers will be Geno Henderson, a cast member from the Broadway production of “Baby It’s You.” Loh’s one-woman production of her “The Madwoman in the Volvo” begins at the Pasadena Playhouse in June.
For more information on the benefit, contact Genevieve Ostrander at (626) 737-2852 or [email protected].
Wounded and Rising
The exhibition “Armenia: An Open Wound,” opening April 9 at the Brand Library, is a large-scale collaboration between the city of Glendale and the Armenian American Museum. It promises an in-depth examination of Armenian culture and history, including a detailed account of the 1915 Armenian Genocide through survivor testimony.
Less known outside the Armenian community is that many survivors of the 1915 tragedy eventually settled in Mexico. A century later, it was there that “Armenia: An Open Wound” debuted last year at Mexico City’s Museo Memoria Y Tolerancia [Museum of Memory and Tolerance].
Admission is free. The Brand Library & Art Center is at 1601 West Mountain Street, Glendale. More info on “Armenia: An Open Wound” at ArmenianAmericanMuseum.org or (844) 586-4626.
Classic Meets the Modern
A full evening of classic pieces and one modern composition as performed by the Pasadena Symphony are set to unfold March 19 at the Ambassador Auditorium.
The concert — performed twice — will feature a collaboration between symphony music director and cellist David Lockington and principal guest conductor Nicholas McGegan, a two-time Grammy nominee.
The program includes Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 and Beethoven’s “Overture to Egmont.” Following those pieces, Lockington will join the ensemble to perform a modern work, Philip Sawyers’ Cello Concerto (which premiered in 2012 with the Modesto Symphony).
The concerts will be performed at 2 p.m. and 8 p..m., with a pre-concert discussion with McGegan and Lockington one hour before curtain.
The Ambassador Auditorium is located at 131 South St. John Avenue, Pasadena, CA. Ticket prices start at $35 and may be purchased at www.pasadenasymphony-pops.org or at (626) 793-7172.
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