Events in Rochester, NY for Thursday, December 25, 2014 through Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Here's my selection of events in Rochester this week:
Thursday, December 25

  • Tonight at the Bug Jar starting around 9:30 p.m. is a Reunion Show for Root Hogs with Pink Elephant, and Babayaga. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Dec-22]

Friday, December 26

  • Tonight through Saturday and January 2 at 7 p.m., and on Saturday, Sunday, and January 3 at 2 p.m., the MuCCC will host performances of Tartuffe, the Imposter! by The Shakespeare Company.

    "Tartuffe" tells the story of the rich Orgon, who dreams of a pious life, and the duplicitous Tartuffe, who ingratiates himself into Orgon's home. When Tartuffe's attempts to marry his way into the family disrupt the plans of Orgon's son and daughter, the family rallies around to oust the hypocrite.

    [source: MuCCC website, 2014-Dec-22]

  • Updated: This week's 7 p.m. movie at the Cinema is Gone Girl (David Fincher, U.S. 2014, 149 min.) "With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent." According to their website, Art and Craft never arrived, so they're showing St. Vincent (Theodore Melfi, U.S. 2014, 102 min.) in its place at 9:25 p.m. "A young boy whose parents have just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic war veteran who lives next door." [source: Cinema Theatre coming soon page, 2014-Dec-29]
  • Comedy troupe Goo House returns for a Holiday Special at Boulder Coffee on Alexander tonight starting around 7:30 p.m. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-22]
  • The Dryden will screen A Fish Called Wanda (Charles Crichton, U.K. 1988, 108 min., 35mm) tonight at 8 p.m.

    Veteran director Charles Crichton teamed up with two Pythons, John Cleese and Michael Palin, to create this hip and hilarious bit of anarchy. Scripted by Cleese, he also stars as a reserved barrister who gets a new lease on life when he meets up with would-be bank robbers Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline. Palin's increasingly bandaged character gives new meaning to the word "perseverance." Kline won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Otto, Curtis's flamboyantly dim boyfriend.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-22]

  • Starting tonight at 9 p.m. (and various times through January 3) at the MuCCC, the Basement Players present Fully Committed by Becky Mode.

    "This devastatingly funny one act follows a day in the life of Sam Peliczowski, an out-of-work actor who mans the red-hot reservation line at Manhattan's number-one restaurant. Coercion, threats, bribes, histrionics. A cast of desperate callers will stop at nothing in their zeal to land a prime reservation, or the right table. Amid the barrage, Sam's got his own needs to contend with his recently widowed Dad who wants him home for Christmas, and he's up for a choice part at Lincoln Center. While juggling scheming socialites, name-dropping wannabes, fickle celebrities and ego-maniacal bosses, can he manage to look out for himself? A wonderful acting challenge, Fully Committed has over forty wildly diverse characters designed to be played by a single versatile performer."

    [source: MuCCC website, 2014-Dec-22]

  • Tonight and tomorrow at Abilene starting around 9:30 p.m. is Rising Lion: "maximum roots-rock-reggae with a reputation for bringing good vibes to every show." [source: Abilene website, 2014-Dec-22]

Saturday, December 27

  • Today from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. is an Hourglass Play Reading of Dimly Perceived Threats To The System at Blackfriars Theatre (795 E. Main St.)

    Take a break from the holiday madness with "Dimly…"! Maryls Hauser is a management consultant who can't seem to manage the slightest problem at home. Her husband, Josh, is developing a film about the American Family in Crisis – while slipping into an affair with his producer. Their comically dysfunctional daughter, Christine, torments her school therapist – when she's not channeling the spirit of her grandmother.

    [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-24]

  • Starting around 4:30 p.m. is the monthly Community Dinner at the Flying Squirrel. [source: Flying Squirrel website, 2014-Dec-22]
  • Tonight at 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, Australia/Uk 1994, 102 min., 35mm).

    Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce are three hilarious lip-sync performers—two drag queens and one transsexual—who take the road trip of the century in a wildly painted school bus called Priscilla. Their amazing wardrobe won an Oscar for costume design, and the soundtrack is a must for Abba fans. The Australian outback will never be the same.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-22]

  • Starting around 10 p.m. at the Bug Jar is The Barry Brothers, The Gowns, The Capitals, Continental Drifft, and Declan Ryan. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Dec-22]
  • At Monty's Krown starting around 10:30 p.m. is Krampus Madness with Sulaco, and BML. [source: Facebook, 2014-Dec-22]

Sunday, December 28

  • The Dryden will screen the Director's Cut of Amadeus (MiloÅ¡ Forman, U.S. 1984, 178 min., 35mm) today at 2 p.m.

    Forman's film adaptation of Peter Shaffer's hugely successful stage play, won seven Academy Awards, including a well-deserved Best Actor for F. Murray Abraham's devious, but musically mediocre Salieri. Filmed in Prague by cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek, the film offers visually stunning backdrops to the court of Emperor Joseph II (the great Jeffrey Jones) in which the genius of Mozart (Thomas Hulce) overshadows, but cannot break the power of Salieri.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-22]

Monday, December 29

  • Starting at 10 p.m. at the Little is a Mondo Movie Series screening of New Year's Evil (Emmett Alston, U.S. 1980, 90 min.)

    New Year's Eve is on it's way and TV's most famous punk-rock lady icon Diane Sullivan is holding a late hour countdown celebration of music and partying. All is going well until Diane [receives] a phone call from a odd sounding stranger announcing on live Television that when New Year's strikes in each time zone, a 'Naughty Girl' will be murdered (punished), and the killer leaves a threat saying she will be the one to die last. The studio crew takes precautions and [heighten] security, but on the other side of America, a hospital nurse is found brutally butchered. Who could be behind these murders? A crazed fan, a religious psychotic, or perhaps it's someone much closer to Diane then the police (or audience) could have ever expected.

    [source: Little Theatre website, 2014-Dec-22]

Tuesday, December 30

  • Today from 12:10 p.m. to 12:35 p.m. in Christ Church is a performance of the Eastman Organ Department's Tuesday Pipes. [source: Eastman School of Music calendar, 2014-Dec-22]
  • At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Pedro Almodóvar, Spain 1988, 90 min., Spanish w/ subtitles, 35mm).

    Human lives converge while narrative lines diverge in this pitch-black comedy that brought its Spanish auteur to international acclaim. Recently dumped by her criminal boyfriend, Pepa mines the spillage of her fractured life. Irresolution presides over Women on the Verge, which ultimately reveals itself to be as nervous and nonsensical as the women it purportedly puts on display. Apropos of hysteria, Almodóvar's film proves to be more a mirror of its viewer than a real condition of its female subjects.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-22]

  • Tonight at the Bug Jar is Sea Planes, Cantelope, The Concussed, and Limeworks starting around 9 p.m. [source: Bug Jar calendar, 2014-Dec-22]

Wednesday, December 31

  • Tonight and tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. is the Pond Rot Gallery Opening and Zine Launch at Panoptic HQ (Hungerford Building, 1115 E. Main St., Studio 210.) [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-22]
  • The Capitol Steps perform in the Callahan Theater at Nazareth College Arts Center tonight at 6:30 p.m. and at 10 p.m. [source: City Newspaper events calendar, 2014-Dec-24]
  • At 7 p.m. is a Slingshot Organizer Fundraiser at the Flying Squirrel.

    The 2015 Organizer comes in Two Sizes! … The pocket version "classic" is a 176 page pocket planner (4.25 inches X 5.5 inches) with radical dates for every day of the year, space to write your phone numbers, a contact list of radical groups around the globe, menstrual calendar, info on police repression, extra note pages, plus much more. Great stocking stuffer or gift for that radical in your life.

    [source: Facebook, 2014-Dec-22]

  • At 8 p.m., the Dryden will screen Strictly Ballroom (Baz Luhrmann, Australia 1992, 94 min., 35mm).

    The buoyantly joyful and playfully clever film debut of director Baz Luhrmann was the surprise sleeper hit of 1992. After a midnight screening at the Cannes Film Festival, Luhrmann succeeded in selling all the worldwide rights the next day. Paul Mercurio and Tara Morice are the perfect mismatched couple in this boy-meets-girl/ugly-duckling/rebels-with-a-cause romance set against the fierce competition of Australian ballroom dancing. Reputedly every sequin, feather boa, and pot of blue eye shadow in the South Pacific Rim was used in the making of this film.

    [source: Dryden website, 2014-Dec-22]

  • Tonight starting around 8 p.m. at Sticky Lips BBQ Juke Joint, Ring in 2015 with Quazi*mojo, and great classic rock/soul band Anonymous Willpower. [source: Sticky Lips website, 2014-Dec-22]

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