The Town of Long Lake will host The Oldies Show on Saturday, March 4th at 7:30 pm at the Long Lake Town Hall, 1204 Main Street.
The Oldies Show is a nine piece show band that plays the greatest hits of the 50s, 60s and 70s. The Oldies Show is made up of music industry veterans, who have shared the stage with a number of the artists they recreate. The Oldies Show has opened for rock and roll legends Lou Christy, Kenny Vance, The Drifters, Sonny Terry and performed as part of The Golden Oldies Spectacular at Proctors Theater. » Continue Reading.
This weekend Art in the Public Eye (APE) of Glens Falls is holding its 24-Hour Play Fest. Writers, directors and actors randomly form teams to produce a 10-minute play. This Saturday, February 25 at 8 pm, 10 teams will descend on the Wood Theatre where audience members will vote for a winning play, director, and actors.
According to APE Play Fest Chairperson Erin Coon the event was modeled after a similar event held while she attended Indiana University. On returning home Coon to the Lake George area, Coon helped link the local effort with national 24-Hour Play producers. » Continue Reading.
The Depot Theatre has announced the details for its 39th Season. The main stage lineup will feature three productions: a new comedy with penguins; the true story of the infamous “singer” Florence Foster Jenkins; and a musical tour of 1950’s with an aspiring girl group.
Opening the season on July 7th in its East Coast Premiere, A Brief History of Penguins & Promiscuity is a new comedy in which Victorian literature, Penguin musk, shotguns, fantasy men, and French waiters all collide in this racy look at paternity. A Brief History of Penguins won the LA Ovation Award for Best New Play in 2016. » Continue Reading.
What a Raquette Music and Dance, the organization behind the Ives Park Concert Series and Caroling in Potsdam events have annouced their Cabin Fever Concert Series, starting on Saturday, February 25th at 4 pm in the Potsdam Public Museum, located in the Civic Center, 2 Park St, Potsdam.
The new winter concert series begins with a sitar and tabla Indian music concert with Tomek Regulski and SUNY Potsdam graduate Rob Morrison. The series also includes an evening of jazz with Bret Zvacek, trombone, and Paul Meyers, guitar, on March 4th at 7 pm; Don’t Tell Darlings, bluegrass and old-time country, on March 11th at 4 pm; and Miss Angie’s Music, children’s songs and shadow puppet theater, on March 25th at 4 pm. » Continue Reading.
Each group provides a variety of wonderful experiences for children and community members to be part of the action, but Pendragon Theatre has a unique opportunity that fosters a different creative outlet. » Continue Reading.
Hal Smith‘s heavy workload was more than paying the bills, and in 1952 he began building a home in the San Fernando Valley. Bit parts in so many TV shows led to appearances in multiple episodes of popular programs like Broken Arrow and Have Gun, Will Travel, and countless opportunities in the world of commercial advertising. For several years he was too busy to get away often, so in late 1959, instead of visiting his parents in Old Forge, he flew to Detroit to buy a new Dodge, drove to the Adirondacks, and brought them back to California for a six-month stay. » Continue Reading.
In early January 1938, Hal Smith, described as an “impersonator, vocalist, and musician,” left WIBX in Utica to sing, do impersonations, and perform production work for stations WGR, WKBW, and WEBR in Buffalo. Without missing a beat, he was soon serving as master of ceremonies at high-profile events, and leading a band known as Pop Martin and His Boys while hosting a radio show by the same name. He was also regularly featured on WEBR with well-known Buffalo singer Joan Hutton, on a pair of shows titled “Music is My Hobby” and “Linger Awhile.”
Despite doing well in Buffalo, Hal returned by mid-year to WIBX in Utica. One reason for the move may have been his relationship with the station secretary there, Vivian Angstadt. In early August 1938 they applied for a marriage license, and were wed in Utica on the thirteenth. After a stay at Lake Placid while touring the Adirondacks, they returned to work at WIBX. » Continue Reading.
For Hal Smith and his siblings, there always seemed to be a new act in the works. When she was 18, Hal’s sister Bernadeen presented the Follies of 1932 in the local opera house in January, a show that included the Smith children singing and dancing. In April of the same year, the PTA sponsored a circus act as a stage production, with dozens of cast members led by Hal Smith as ringmaster. In two different shows presented in June, including a band concert, he sang solos.
In September, at the beginning of the next school year, Bernadeen and Kathleen directed, acted, and danced in a four-act play. Just three weeks past his 16th birthday, Hal sang a solo in scene two, and between acts he sang with Joe Calipari and his orchestra.
While still directing plays and shows, the Smith sisters enrolled in Potsdam Normal School in the fall of 1932. Hal continued taking acting roles, but more and more was performing as a singer. He joined the newly formed Massena High School choir, and in November, when the school band played on radio station CFLC (in Prescott, Ontario, opposite Ogdensburg on the St. Lawrence River), Hal was the solo vocalist. » Continue Reading.
For millions of people, holidays are all about going home, returning to one’s roots of family and friends. That concept was epitomized by a North Country man who attained great fame in Hollywood, but to his great credit never forgot the home folks — and to their credit, the home folks never forgot him. Whenever he returned to the North Country, or old friends visited him in California, there was always an exchange of love, admiration, and deep appreciation.
He was born in northern Michigan in 1916 as Harold John Smith, about as anonymous a name as one can imagine, and likely one that stirs no sense of recognition. But if Otis Campbell were mentioned, many would instantly recall Mayberry’s affable town drunk from The Andy Griffith Show. » Continue Reading.
Our Town Theatre Group will end the 2016 season with a 20th Anniversary Gala, on Saturday, December 10, at 7 pm in the Lyle Dye Auditorium at Tannery Pond Community Center in North Creek.
The free event will feature music by The Jive Five featuring area favorites Al Tolomeo and Frank Conti. Refreshments, dancing, and short scenes pulled from OTTG’s history will be performed to commemorate the history of the group. OTTG memorabilia will also be on display to showcase OTTG history. » Continue Reading.
Therese Wendler, principal dancer with Rebecca Kelly Ballet and Dances Patrelle, will once again dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the NCBE’s 31st Annual Nutcracker performance. Mikhail Ilyin, a sololist and principal dancer with the Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet and American Ballet Theater, will perform in the role of Cavalier alongside local and regional dancers.
The Nutcracker Ballet is the perfect blending of gorgeous sets and costumes with a timeless story and score. This family-friendly ballet gestures in the Christmas holidays as we once again are whisked into young Claire’s adventure when her toy Nutcracker comes to life to defeat the evil Mouse King. The magical experience, accompanied by Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, pulls us into a land of life-size toys, dancing sweets and a Nutcracker prince. » Continue Reading.
In its 21-year history, Saranac’s Hill and Hollow Music has brought over 200 professional chamber music ensembles to the Adirondacks. Their community outreach has included presentations in schools, churches, senior residences and community centers. I am always so grateful for such organizations that float into our communities with seemingly little effort and bring international musicians to our door.
This Sunday, November 20 at the Saranac United Methodist Church on Rt. 3, Hill and Hollow Founder and Director Angela Brown has brought together an outstanding trio to perform at the Saranac “Little Church in the Hollow.” » Continue Reading.
Tupper Lake is looking to turn Flanders Park into a performance park, and it needs help from the community and visitors.
The plan is to build a bandshell on the shore of the scenic Raquette Pond and build a stone plaza in front of the bandshell. Construction will also include a rain garden behind the bandshell that will help with drainage. » Continue Reading.
Historic Saranac Lake (HSL) will hold its 36th Annual Meeting on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 at 7 pm at the Saranac Laboratory Museum. The meeting will feature a presentation by filmmaker Jim Griebsch of a newly updated version of “Hotel Hope: the Story of Will Rogers Hospital.”
The evening will also feature the unveiling of an artifact donated to HSL by the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation. The meeting is open to members of Historic Saranac Lake and those who are interested in becoming members. Light refreshments will be served.
Historic Saranac Lake contracted with Jim Griebsch to produce the historical film in 2015. Special historian for Will Rogers Memorial Hospital Leslie Hoffman provided research assistance. Caroline Welsh, Director Emerita of the Adirondack Museum, and Art and Museum Consultant, assisted with research and writing. Originally planned to be a short film of under fifteen minutes, the project grew to feature original film footage and contemporary interviews with former patients and employees of the hospital. In 2016, the film was updated with additional footage. » Continue Reading.
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