THE COVE

The Cove is not a take-your-medicine documentary. It’s a gripping adventure film, and it will stick with you.
For more than 25 years, Japan has been fighting the restrictions around “harvesting” whales. But even those restrictions overlook Japan’s annual slaughter of more than 23,000 dolphins and subsequent marketing of mercury-contaminated dolphin meat as whale meat, a horrifying secret most Japanese don’t even realize.
Activist Rick O’Barry, who trained the dolphins used for the TV show Flipper, came to realize these conscious and highly communicative mammals don’t deserve to be exploited for entertainment. He’s spent the last 25 years trying to make up for the popularization of dolphins that followed the success of Flipper. When he learned of the wholesale slaughter of dolphins in a secret cove in Taiji, Japan, he asked for help in exposing the tragedy.
O’Barry’s friend, director Louie Psihoyos, brought in a crack team of experts to penetrate the tight security around the Taiji cove. In the style of a heart-pounding suspense thriller, the film takes us along as divers sneak cameras and underwater microphones into the secret area. The stakes are high: perhaps a year in prison. These aren’t weekend activists; they are the very definition of commitment. And when they bring back the evidence, the world must take action.
You’ll want to see this academy nominated film before it’s gone.

Lainie Turner – Darkside Cinema
January 15th & 16th

Angela Daddabbo
Artistic Producing Director
Auburn Public Theater
315) 253-6669
angela@auburnpublictheater.com.

TOUGH STUFF FROM THE BUFF

Experimental & Activist Video
from the fringes of Buffalo, NY
artist/curator Dave Gracon will
be on hand for a Q&A
Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 8pm

Out of the post-industrial ghost-lands of Buffalo, NY a media scene has emerged with an urgency, tradition and aesthetic all its own.
With roots in early media activism of the 1970s, and supported by a network of artist-run initiatives, the city has only recently started to become recognized for its lo-fi, experimental and, above all,
uncompromising body of film and video. This collection acknowledges the origins of this tradition, while focusing on contemporary examples of those persevering against the odds of creating media in a dying rustbelt town.
Featuring works by: Esther Johnson, Chris Ernst, Tony Conrad, Marc Moscato, Critical Art Ensemble, Paris Henderson, Terry Cuddy, Kelly Spivey, Julie Perini, Meg Knowles, David Gracon, Stephanie Gray & Gabriella Citriniti
This event was funded by NYSCA and the Experimental Art Center
January 8th and 9th

Angela Daddabbo
Artistic Producing Director
Auburn Public Theater
315) 253-6669
angela@auburnpublictheater.com.

December 18th & 19th, 2009

GOTTA DANCE in Auburn, NY Finger Lakes Region

Who says you can’t hip-hop if you’re 80-years-old? Who says your days as a performer are long gone? Who says you can’t shake things up and light up a jam-packed sports arena with your hot moves and cool attitude?
Just because you’re a card-carrying member of AARP, do you have to give up on your dreams?
No. You don’t. Absolutely not.
GOTTA DANCE is BAD NEWS BEARS morphed into the flip side of MAD HOT BALLROOM.
GOTTA DANCE the movie chronicles the debut of the New Jersey Nets’ first-ever senior hip-hop dance team, 12 women and 1 man – all dance team newbies, from auditions through to center court stardom.
As smooth dance moves are perfected and performed in front of thousands, aging myths and misperceptions are pulverized.
Despite swollen ankles, exhausting rehearsals, fashion clashes and seemingly impossible dance steps, the NETSational Seniors go for it, spreading joy, inspiration and cool dance moves as they hip-hop their way into the hearts of Nets fans and beyond.

http://www.auburnpublictheater.org/cinema.html

A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES A new tradition for Auburn

Review by Tom Woods, Special to the Citizen Grade: A When I wrote last year that I hoped the Auburn Public Theater would make “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” an annual event, I thought perhaps that its creators would allow the theater to mount the play on its own. I didn’t expect Polly Hogan and Ron Ritchell to bring it back themselves. Hogan and Ritchell, together with APT co-founder Carey Eidel and local actor Dave Tobin, are reunited for another round of the play running this December the downtown theater.

For those who missed this extraordinary event last year, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” is an adaptation by Hogan taken from the writings of Dylan Thomas. Her script is absolutely marvelous, weaving Thomas’ poetry and narrative together brilliantly and creating a work that is evocative and emotive. The unusual effect of this play is not that it takes you back so vividly to the Swansea Christmases of Thomas’ youth, but to your own. The performances are just as good as the material, with Hogan and Ritchell in a variety of roles and Tobin and Eidel as Thomas and his friend Jim at a variety of ages.

Ritchell is superb in every detail, particularly effective opening and closing the show with Thomas’ poetry. Hogan is a joy as an assortment of mothers, aunts and spinsters, all clearly delineated and unique, each familiar and redolent. Eidel is masterful as Jim, delivering a detailed and consistent performance, using traits of the boy to inform the actions of the man. Whether hunting cats in the snow or passing judgment on his fellow villagers he is completely believable. Tobin tightens what was a good performance last year, finding more detail and comfort as Thomas. He, too, uses the youngster to help create the man but has the additional burden of commentator. His transitions between narration and character are much smoother now, and his work throughout is more confident and seamless.

The technical aspects of the production show improvement as well. There is more and better lighting and some additions to the set that help both the look and the flow.There is nothing objectionable for families, but some of the material may not hold the attention of very young children.

General Information

http://www.auburnpublictheater.org/contactus.html#

info@auburnpublictheater.com

Artistic Producing Director: Angela Daddabbo
angela@auburnpublictheater.com

Managing Director/Rentals: Carey Eidel
carey@auburnpublictheater.com

Curtis Feldmann, Curt Feldmann