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Stage: Hot Ticket
By JOHN FLEMING
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 29, 2001
Hear them ring
Most every church worth its musical salt has had a handbell choir at one time or another, and that alone should provide a knowing audience for Sunday's concert by the Sonos Handbell Ensemble at the Palladium Theater. Directed by James Meredith, the Berkeley, Calif., group has performed in settings as various as the World Ice Skating Championships, the 50th anniversary celebration of the United Nations and Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio.
The 14-member ensemble performs a holiday program of carols, hymns and Christmas pop songs, as well as a suite from The Nutcracker. The concert is being presented by the Mahaffey Theater Foundation, which for the first time is putting something on away from the theater in downtown St. Petersburg's Bayfront Center. Instead, Sonos is appearing a few blocks away at the Palladium, which is a more suitable space for a handbell concert than the Mahaffey.
Sonos performs at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Palladium. Tickets: $18. (727) 892-5767.
Keyed to listening and learning
Pianist Rebecca Penneys will be featured in three events this weekend at St. Petersburg College. First, Penneys, professor of piano at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., will give a recital of Bartok, Debussy, Mozart, Chopin and Liszt at 8 p.m. Friday at the school. Then, on Saturday, she will give a workshop from 9:30 a.m. to noon for pianists and teachers that will cover new teaching concepts and technical methods, followed by a master class from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
The concert is free. Admission to the workshop and master class is $5. Topics covered in the workshop include the four basics of piano technique, using the body in time, centering the self, motion and emotion, the voice of the piano, and sound and color. All events are at the school's Music Center, 6605 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg. For information, call (727) 341-4360. For more on Penneys, see her Web site: www.rebeccapenneys.com.
'Shylock': inside an outsider
Shylock appears in only five scenes and speaks fewer than 400 lines in The Merchant of Venice, yet he is one of Shakespeare's most infamous characters. The reason, of course, is that he is a stereotypical Jewish money lender, reflecting the anti-Semitism of Elizabethan times, as well as a richly comic villain whose miserliness rivals that of the holiday season icon Scrooge.
After playing Shylock, Welsh actor Gareth Armstrong wrote a one-man show on the character that he will be performing twice in this area during December. "Only Hamlet has inspired more debate and dissension, so there is plenty of scope for research," Armstrong says. "But no academic who writes about the play can know what it's like to be Shylock. Only an actor knows that. Shylock is the ultimate outsider -- and misfits are always the most interesting parts to play."
Shylock is part of the new Van Wezel Traveling Stage program, under which the Sarasota hall presents some artists in smaller venues around the community. Armstrong has performances at 8 p.m. Monday and Dec. 10 at the Asolo Theatre. Tickets: $15-$30. (941) 953-3368 or toll-free 1-800-826-9303. Web site: www.vanwezel.org.
Meaning clothed in movement
Paul Taylor is one of the last of the modern dance pioneers. At 70, he continues to make dances, having recently completed his 116th work. Taylor may be the most lighthearted of modern choreographers, making his witty points about society with lyrical movement and unusual costuming. When his company appears at Ruth Eckerd Hall, the audience will see a pair of his classics -- Company B and Cloven Kingdom -- and the new Antique Valentine and Dandelion Wine. The performance is at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: $35 and $40. (727) 791-7400.
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