Learn more about set design like this, from this summer’s Company of Fools production “Other Desert Cities,” in a new exhibit at The Center in Hailey.
Courtesy photo |
Look behind the scenes at The Liberty
The Sun Valley Center for the Arts has a new exhibition at The Center in Hailey entitled “Behind the Seen: Theatrical Design at Company of Fools.” This exhibit, which offers a rare glimpse backstage at the Hailey-based theatre company, will open with a special celebration on Thursday, Sept. 19, from 5:30-7 p.m.
Anyone who has seen a production by the Company of Fools has seen the work of talented set designers, whose decisions set the tone for a show, giving it depth and feeling beyond the words.
The exhibit features examples from 17 years of plays and provides a backstage view into the way designers use sound, lighting, costuming, props and set design to transform the space of the stage. Visitors can follow the design process from sketches and models to fully-realized performances captured in Kirsten Shultz’s production photographs.
“While most theatre-goers focus their attention on the actors on stage, this exhibition will explore the different elements of design that audience members might overlook during a performance but are essential to a production’s success,” said Joe Lavigne, production manager for Company of Fools.
The Center in Hailey is in the old Ezra Pound House, at 314 Second Ave. South.
Fire lecture at Community Library
Learn about “A New Wildfire Paradigm,” in a presentation by George Wuerthner tonight, Sept. 18, at 6 p.m. at the Community Library in Ketchum.
Wuerthner is an ecologist and a former Idaho resident. He has published 36 books, including two dealing with wildfire ecology. His most recent on wildfire published by Island Press is “Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy.”
Wuerthner has traveled extensively around the West observing and researching the conditions under which wildfires burn, as well as keeping up with the latest scientific literature on fire ecology. Wuerthner’s lecture will discuss a number of pertinent questions, including under what conditions do fires burn, does beetle kill contribute to greater fire risk, biases in fire history studies, how current fires compare to past fires in previous centuries, and how can a community protect itself from fire threats.
The lecture is hosted by the Western Watersheds Project, a Hailey-based conservation group.
Western Watersheds Project works to protect and restore streams, water quality, fisheries and wildlife habit on public lands throughout the West.
Get tickets Metropolitan Opera Live in HD series
Sun Valley Opera and Metropolitan Theatres are once again co-sponsoring the Metropolitan Opera’s 10 MET HD:Live screenings beginning Oct. 5 with “Eugene Onegin” at 10:55 a.m. in the Bigwood Cinema 4 in Hailey.
To kick off the season, mimosas and muffins will be served before the opera and musicians from the Wood River Community Orchestra will be on site to entertain. Doors open at 10:15 a.m. This production will unite soprano Ann Netrebko with conductor Valery Gergiev and with longtime colleagues Mariusz Kwiecien and Beczala.
Netrebko, considered one of the greatest living singers plus a major actress, brings her talent and beauty to the roll of Titiana. Tchaikovsky was said to declare himself in love with Titiana as he wrote her music. This tale of a fateful romance set in the 19th century moves episodically from farmhouse to ballroom, with a blinding snowstorm providing the dramatic setting for the finale. Deborah Warner has designed the sets for this new production.
Opera News labels Netrebko as “the biggest international star the opera world has known since Luciano Pavarotti.” She and her partner, baritone Erwin Schrott, have been called the Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt of the opera world, due to not only their talent but also their charitable works. She has graced the MET’s stage as Massenet’s Manon and as Anna Bolena in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
“Eugene Onegin” is based on the novel of the same name by 24-year-old poet Aleksandr Puskin, who wrote it in verse in 1823. Tchaikovsky was encouraged by a leading singer with the Bolshoi to turn it into an opera. By the last years of Tchaikovsky’s life, it had achieved the status as a national treasure and brought him international fame.
Tickets can be purchased at the theatre’s box office. The cost is $24 general admission, $20 for seniors and $18 for students.
Learn more about “roughing it in luxury,”
in the book that features Sun Valley
“American Ski Resort: Architecture, Style, Experience,” has just been released and Sun Valley is featured prominently in the hefty coffee-table architectural history tome.
“One of America’s most popular sports, skiing is all about freedom,” it says in the liner notes. “Skiers enjoy the thrill of adventure, an escape from city life, and a close encounter with nature at its most rugged and majestic. And yet, paradoxically, the experience of skiing for most Americans is inextricably linked to the architecture, for our journey down the mountainside is shaped by the ski resort.”
Chapter 2 leads with Sun Valley, “The First American Destination Ski Resort,” a purpose-built new community centered on recreation and leisure.
The resort is described as: “A development controlled by outsiders with seemingly unlimited economic and political resources that transformed the local community, and a location far from urban centers, ensuring that the resort was not inundated with day skiers.”
Sun Valley “redefined skiing in America as a winter vacation rather than a wilderness outing.”
