It’s a potpourri of fun this weekend with a selection of events that might not have been on your radar — but should be. A little art, a little theater, a little music. What’s not to like?
Let’s start with visual art — and visual art of the homegrown kind.
The fifth annual “Florida Showcase” has just opened at Snap! Downtown. It’s an eclectic exhibition featuring more than 50 Florida artists, both established and emerging. In fact, the idea is to highlight both veterans and up-and-comers together.
The works, in a variety of media, reflect Florida itself: Colorful, whimsical, breezy, sometimes inspiring eye-rolling, sometimes a little spooky.
I couldn’t look away from Kierra Branker’s “By Faith, Not By Sight,” which was both colorful and a little spooky. In the large work — 30 inches by 40 inches — a woman with colorful blue hair stairs into a thicket of Florida foliage. Behind her back, she’s holding a large and aged rosary … and a butcher knife. Does she think she can chop down the towering plants with that knife? Or is there some other purpose in mind?
More direct is Darin Back’s portrait of celebrity surfer Kepa Mendia, who enigmatically stares straight at the viewer.
If you’re looking for color, Sharma Shari Rodriguez’s “Building Blocks” features a set of eyes surrounded by a familiar plastic-brick toy in various hues, while Mar Martinez’s “Praying With My Eyes Open V” is a brilliant acrylic on wood.
On the whimsical side of things, Andrew Boyton’s “No Land Without a Lord” leaves you chuckling at a sea of faces amid ruffles and powdered wigs — while you wonder what has them so surprised. And Todd Brittingham’s birdlike “Angel” sculpture, at more than 8 feet tall, delicately dominates the room.
Make sure you hit all three galleries; I enjoy the unique setup of Snap! Downtown. Located in the Camden Thornton Park building, the art spots are connected by a long almost dazzlingly white hallway. Just follow the art on the walls (and the signs, if you’re more practical) from one gallery to the next.
Snap! Downtown is at 420 E. Church St. in Orlando, and its hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday. “Florida Showcase” is on view the rest of the year.
Turning to theater, how about a disco-“Star Trek” mashup?
Brevard County’s Treasure Coast Players are making a field trip — or make that a space flight — over to Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts with an original musical comedy.
“StarDate 1970? has two performances this weekend, at 8 p.m. Aug. 27 and 28 (that’s Saturday and Sunday night) in the Pugh Theater.
Here’s the gist: Aliens have intercepted a 1970 radio transmission from Earth, and unluckily for us humans the song they heard was about war and death. So naturally, the aliens now think humanity must be eradicated before doing irreparable harm to the cosmos.
Enter starship Intra-Path, commanded by Captain James T. Jirk, who must convince these beings that music is just a form of creative expression. The Intra-Path crew heads back in time to introduce the music of the 1970s and save humankind.
Tickets start at $35; get more information at drphillipscenter.org.
More music: The Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra will present its last concert of the summer on Saturday, Aug. 27, featuring its VoxOCCO singers. On the program of “Let Me Be Peace” are four world premieres written specifically for the organization.
“Pax? Pax? Pax?” by Marshall Webb is an a cappella vocal work that inspired the program’s title. “O quam dulcis,” by Central Florida Composers Forum member William Ayers, is arranged for choir, vibraphone and cello. It speaks to how quiet moments make life sweeter.
“Hope & Quietly Wait,” by Paul John Rudoi, is for choir and piano and reminds us that “neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God.”
Boston-based composer Carson Cooman’s Symphony No. 5 for Chamber Orchestra and voices is about the patterns and connections that we see in dreams. And Irish born Caroline-Jayne Gleave’s “Creation” for solo soprano and chamber orchestra, comprises 10 short movements representing the evolution of the human spirit.
“Let Me Be Peace” will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 27, at Harriett’s Orlando Ballet Centre, 600 N. Lake Formosa Drive in Orlando. Tickets are $15-$30; get more information at occomusic.com.
And there’s even more music on Sunday.
Opera Orlando’s summer concert series winds down at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, with a program titled “Late Night Encounters.” Soprano Susan Hellman Spatafora, who played Rosalinda in 2020’s “Die Fledermaus” is joined by bass Andrew W. Potter, who just appeared in “Rigoletto.”
Accompanied by Robin Stamper, the singers will perform music by characters who reveal their true selves only under cloak of darkness. Doesn’t that sound dramatic?
The program includes late-night scenes from Verdi’s “La Forza Del Destino” and Carlisle Floyd’s opera “Susannah,” evening art songs by Alfred Bachelet, Herbert Hughes and Richard Strauss, and musical-theater favorites from “Les Misérables” and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”
The concert will be at the University Club of Winter Park, 841 N. Park Ave. Tickets are $45; go to operaorlando.org.
Find me on Twitter @matt_on_arts, facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Want more theater and arts news and reviews? Go to orlandosentinel.com/arts. For more fun things, follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
