Through July 10, catch Athena at Urbanite Theater, a play by Gracie Garner and directed by Summer Wallace—co-founder and co-artistic director of Urbanite Theatre. The play follows two teenage fencers training for Nationals - Mary Wallace and Athena—as their personalities foil and parry through the tumultuous cycle of adolescence. “They’re rivals and practice partners—the play focuses on how when friendship intermingles with competition, things get complicated. There’s a lot of pressure to be the best fencer, to get into the best college, and to navigate teenage life, all at the same time,” says Summer Wallace. What stands out about Athena isn’t just how Urbanite Theatre’s intimate layout adapts to the various scene changes or the time taken to portray convincing fencing, but in how the sparring acts as a conduit for the larger thematic elements of the play. Intimacy is found in the ordinary, normal lives of these American teenagers - through their struggles and differences they learn how to find themselves.
LOVE, LINDA, PLAYERS THEATRE
The Players Center is rehearsing for asummer lineup of exciting productions, debuting two music-filled performances. Love, Linda and Let It Be. The shows will grace the stage at Studio 1130 located at The Crossings at Siesta Key, 3501 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Love, Linda reflects on the lyrics and music of Cole Porter through the narration of Linda Lee Thomas, who was the driving force for the timeless songwriter. This one-woman musical is scheduled to have a preview performance on July 13 at 7:30pm and will be available to the public for $22. Regular showing tickets will sell for $25. On July 14-16 and July 21-23 performances will begin at 7:30pm and July 17 and 24 showings will start at 2pm with an approximate run time of two hours. Let It Be is set during the 1960’s when civil unrest and The Beatles were at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Chronicling the journey of two neighboring families who lean on each other increasingly through their hardships, this story celebrates their journey to find peace and love. Popular songs from The Beatles repeteur accentuate the beauty and meaning of this story. A preview performance will run on August 17 at 7:30pm for $22. Performances on August 18-20 and 25-27 begin at 7:30pm and on August 21 and 28 at 2pm for $25.
MONTANA STORY, SARASOTA FILM SOCIETY.
Drama, comedy, romance, action – indulge in a summer of popcorn-filled fun with the Sarasota Film Society. Starting at just $20, Sarasota Film Society offers membership packages that include discounted ticket rates, free popcorn and soda, early access to ticket purchasing and more. Indulge in both independent films and blockbuster screenings of this summer’s family features.
METADATA: RETHINKING PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE 21ST CENTURY, RINGLING MUSEUM.
In the age of hand held, professional grade cameras in your phones and social media that profligates the constant sharing of images, we never really think to take a step back to examine what’s in those images. What data do they carry beyond face value? What biases were they created with? Metadata: Rethinking Photography from the 21st Century, on display at the Ringling Museum through August 28th, explores these concepts. “The exhibition looks at the work of about ten contemporary artists, many of whom are exploring photography from an expanded practice,” says curator Christopher Jones. “The premise of the exhibition is expanding upon the concept of metadata - which today we think of as that embedded information that gives raw data of the image—when it was taken, by whom, and perhaps the geographic location of the image. Metadata can also be the other information that the image accumulates as it circulates through the internet,” adds Jones. The exhibit is also working to incorporate the different aspects of digital and analog photography - mainly photography practices and circulation patterns—into our collective understanding of metadata and how that impacts the way we view photography. “Some of the artists are exploring the history of digital scanning technology, while two of the artists are looking at the history of color-film photography and the history and culture of the Eastman Kodak film corporation,” says Jones.
