Year: 2017

The perfect show for the child in all of us! Peter Pan  Jr. opens April 26 and runs until April 30.

Alliance for the Arts Youth Theatre presents Peter Pan Jr., directed by Youth Theatre Director, Carmen Crussard with music direction by PJ McCready and choreography by Christopher Dean Anderson. The performances feature a dual cast with Megan Salerno and Avery King as Peter Pan.

Based on J.M. Barrie’s classic tale, Peter Pan is one of the most beloved and frequently performed family favorites of all time. This high-flying Tony Award-winning musical has been performed around the world and delighted audiences for 60 years and is now adapted for young performers.

Avery is an eighth grader at Challenger Middle School. She loves musical theater and has been performing on southwest Florida stages since age 6. Her favorite roles include Baby Bear in Shrek, Molly in Annie, Susan in Miracle in 34th Street and now Peter in Peter Pan.

Megan is a freshman at North Ft. Myers High School and has been in many local productions with City Scenes, Florida Rep, and Broadway Palm.

“I believe the arts inspire a sense of purpose in children that follows them as they grow up,” says Crussard. “I understand the importance of math and science and other subjects that promote industry. But the arts promote humanity, kindness, and relationships. This is where kids learn how to be a team player, a problem solver, a collaborator and a good friend.”

Performances are April 26, April 27 and April 30 at 7 pm, April 28 at 8 pm and April 29 at 3 pm and 8 pm. Tickets are $10 presale, $20 for adults, and $15 for students and seniors.

Purchase Tickets for Peter Pan Jr.

The Alliance for the Arts April exhibition The Future of Art will exhibit from April 4 – April 29. This is the 25th year the Alliance has partnered with Lee Arts Educators Association (LAEA) to display student work in a formal exhibit. The show features more than 40 schools and hundreds of works in a variety of mediums.

The elementary and middle school students opening reception will be on April 4 from 5-7 p.m. and the show will remain on display until April 14. High school works will be exhibited with a second opening reception on April 20 from 5 – 7 p.m. and will remain on display until April 29. Winners will be selected in several categories and Best in Show will be rewarded. Pizza for the high school reception will be provided by Downtown House of Pizza in Fort Myers.

LAEA is a group of art teachers who recognize and promote students who show interest and aptitude in visual arts. The exhibit is sponsored by Pediatric Dentistry of Fort Myers.

“This is an important opportunity for school age students,” says exhibition coordinator Krista Johnson. “Showing student art can engage and energize families, schools and communities.”

Theatre Conspiracy presents the world premiere of The Cave by Jeff Lindsay and directed by Bill Taylor at the Alliance for the Arts.  The Cave is set during the Civil War in a hidden cavern, where an escaped slave, a blind Confederate soldier and a Union deserter hide out to seek freedom and survival. The production is a drama with themes of race, belief and mortality.

Jeff Lindsay is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Dexter novels upon which the international hit TV show Dexter is based. Although a full-time writer now, he has worked as an actor, comic, director, bounder, singer, songwriter, voice-over artist, teacher and sailing instructor.

Lindsay has written twenty-two plays which have been produced in New York, New Haven, Key West, Pittsburgh, London and California. For 5 years, Lindsay wrote “Fatherhood,” a semi-syndicated weekly column on parenting from the male perspective. He hosted several local PBS-TV shows and a documentary. Hemingway In Cuba, which was seen nationally on PBS.

“We’re fortunate to have a powerful cast who embrace and embody each character’s unique disposition,” says Bill Taylor, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Theatre Conspiracy.

The cast for The Cave includes a host of local actors including:

  • Marie Baptiste as Cassie
  • Jordon Wilson as Brandon
  • Michael Pineda as Timothy

Performances are March 24 – April 8 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturdays at 8 p.m. with one Sunday matinee on April 2 at 2 p.m.

PURCHASE TICKETS

If you’re an artist within the 65,000 square miles that make up Florida, we’re calling on you to submit your work to the Annual All Florida Juried Exhibit. As the name suggests, this exhibition features pieces created by artists working in a wide variety of media from all over the state of Florida. The juried entries come together for an exciting exhibition representing today’s contemporary Florida artists!

Categories for entry are sculpture, painting (including oil, acrylic, collage, water color and mixed media), photography, prints and drawing. An entry may consist of 1 to 3 artworks. All entries must be submitted online no later than April 29, 2017. Artists can download the prospectus at www.ArtInLee.org/AllFlorida.

This year’s juror is Kimberly Riner. Riner is the visual arts director at the Averitt Center for the Arts. She received her Master of Fine Art from Georgia Southern University in 3D art with an emphasis in ceramics. Riner has held faculty positions at Georgia Southern University and Ogeechee Technical College.

Riner is actively involved in growing the art scene in the Statesboro area where she has worked with ArtsFest, Summer Studios and Creative Art Studio. Most recently Riner opened the Averitt Center’s new visual arts facility, The Roxie Remley Center for Fine Arts. Her artwork has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is held in private collections. Exhibition venues include: Mason City, IA; Atlanta, GA; North Charleston, SC; Lake City, SC; Cochran, GA; Sheffield, England, UK. Reiner previously exhibited at the Alliance for the Arts in January’s Changing States exhibition.

The opening celebration will be June 2 from 5 – 7 p.m. Riner will be on hand to present awards including $1,000 cash for Best In Show, a 2nd Place $250 gift certificate for Golden Paints, $100 cash for 3rd place and Jurors Choice Award(s) of Alliance for the Arts membership(s). There will be a conversational gallery walk and talk with the juror Saturday, June 3 at 10 a.m.

The Alliance for the Arts main gallery show Art Beyond Boundaries will exhibit from March 3 until March 25 with an opening reception on Sunday, March 5 from 6-8 p.m. Meet artists during a conversational gallery walk and talk on March 11 at 10 a.m.

Art Beyond Boundaries is a collection of 50 works created by artists from Israel and the United States – eight of the participating artists are from Lee County. An artist from Israel was paired with an artist from the United States to create two separate pieces of work based upon a psalm. This exhibition presents the book of Psalms as a source of inspiration and empowerment unbounded by limitations of location or language. The show’s original opening was in Israel and is currently traveling through the southeast United States.

During this exhibit, Toni Ferrell Sutton will be on display in the Theatre Gallery. The Fort Myers Eight will be in the Member Gallery. The group includes local artists Carolyn Gora, Gale Shamblott, Celeste Borah, Juli Bobman, Shirley Litman, Elsie Gold Sewell, Herbert H. Sklar, and Janice Heligman.

This exhibit is sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Lee & Charlotte Counties.

Pathway to Hope – Gale Shamblott (Fused Glass)

Throughout the world we face daily challenges. Like mosaic, we are fragile and bound together by hope. We look to a higher energy, and with open minds, we are offered a path of light and truth. There is comfort in knowing that we are not alone in overcoming challenges.

On Spiritual Ascents – Caroyln Gora (Handmade paper, tree branch string)

Psalm 95:1 words of praise and thanksgiving to Gods creation. We are connected to the value of thanksgiving which materializes as ascending a spiritual ladder of inspiration through acts of giving, love for humanity and gratitude. We found spiritual and artistic similarities through our artistic journey as we influenced each other’s finished art works and climbed our own spiritual ladder.

In His Hands – Herbert H. Sklar (Acrylic on canvas)

Pslam 95:4-5 “In His Hands are the depths of the earth; the peaks of the mountains are His. We is the sea; He made it; and the land, which His hands fashioned.”