Ensemble presents Mother’s Day concert
In April 2020, Ohrlando Chamber Ensemble started its Live Streaming Series with segments every Sunday, later every two weeks, not knowing how long the the COVID-19 pandemic would last. Now, more than year later, the ensemble has performed 140 compositions in 25 virtual concernts and is getting ready for its next streaming concert this Sunday.
For the upcoming Mother’s Day, the ensemble will offer a program with music written by female composers. As a final bouquet, the first movement from the beloved “Arpeggione Sonata” by Franz Schubert in a Ohrlando-made arrangment will be performed.
The performance features Roland Maurer on oboe and bassoon and Ursula Hesse on piano and will be streamed online at https://bit.ly/33maBMP. The ensemble asks that those who view the concert contribute to The Food Basket at www.hawaiifoodbasket.org.
A limited number of in-person seats will be avaialble for vacinated individuals only. For reservations and directions, contact roland.maurer@gmx.ch or call (808) 315-7666.
Aloha Theatre seeks selection committee members
The Aloha Theatre is seeking members for its 2021 Season Selection Committee.
The committee is a team of theater and community representatives who research, discuss, and collaborate to create the lineup for the upcoming 2022-23 Aloha Theatre season.
Each season’s selections include at least one youth production, a play (non-musical), a large-scale musical, and a play written by a Hawaii playwright and/or a subject that is of particular interest to our community.
Meetings are held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. The first meeting is slated this Tuesday.
Email Courtney@alohatheatre.com for more information or visit www.apachawaii.org.
Celebrating art experiences for all abilities
In celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Pua Na Pua program, the Donkey Mill Art Center, Abled Hawaii Artists (AHA) and Full Life Hawaii are hosting a line up of arts experiences and opportunities for the entire family.
With an online auction, hands-on art classes and an art fair featuring Pua Na Pua artists, there are so many ways to get in on the fun and support this important community program.
While several of the workshops are full, there are still a few spots left in Danielle Burnside’s 2D activity and in Jerry Walsh’s printmaking class. Classes are only $5.
Pua Na Pua, a partnership program between three Hawaii Island nonprofits, serves adults with developmental disabilities by providing visual and performing arts programming to foster artistic development, nurture confidence through gallery exhibitions and presentations and explore independence through self-employment.
Each year, the Pua Na Pua program hosts weekly events at the Donkey Mill for Full Life and AHA students to explore a variety of media including metals, printmaking, ceramics, and painting taught by local teaching artists.
The online silent auction will run May 22 to June 5 while the classes will be offered May 27 to 29 and June 3 and 4.
An art fair featuring Pua Na Pua Artists is set 10 a.m to 1 p.m. June 5 at Alii Gardens Marketplace
For more information, visit www.donkeymillartcenter.org
New stage in Rome’s Colosseum will restore majestic view
ROME — A project to build a high-tech, lightweight stage inside the Roman Colosseum will allow visitors a central viewpoint from within the ancient structure “to see the majesty of the monument,” Italy’s culture minister said Sunday.
Dario Franceschini announced a 18.5 million euro ($22 million) contract to build and install the retractable structure that will restore the traditional “arena,” or stage for combat for gladiatorial shows in ancient Rome.
The stage was original to the first-century amphitheater and existed until the 1800s when it was removed for archaeological digs on the subterranean levels of the ancient structure, Franceschini said.
The project should be completed by 2023. The mobile system will be able to quickly cover or uncover the underground structures below, to both protect them from rain or allow them to be aired out. The project is reversible, meaning it can be removed if plans for the Colosseum change in the future.
The new stage will allow visitors to stand in the center and view the Colosseum’s vaulted walls as they would have been seen by gladiators in ancient Rome. It also will permit the staging of cultural events that are respectful of the Colosseum as a symbol of Italy, Franceschini said.
The Colosseum reopened to the public last week after a 41-day closure because of rolling pandemic restrictions. Officials have set up a one-way itinerary as part of safety measures, and visitors are limited to 1,260 a day, compared with as many as 25,000 a day in 2019, pre-pandemic.
From local and wire sources
Conan O’Brien announces June finale for TBS show
Conan O’Brien is turning off the lights at TBS.
The late-night funnyman will wrap his eponymous show, “Conan,” on June 24 after 11 years, the network announced late Monday.
The final run of episodes will include special guests before culminating in a one-hour special and retrospective of the show.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished here,” he said on the show Monday night.
“And so what I’d like is I’d like these last couple of weeks to be a fond look back at all the absurd madness that my team and I have concocted. Best of all, I just want to point out, there will be shockingly few, if any, references to Donald Trump because that’s always been my favorite kind of comedy.”
But O’Brien won’t be off the air long: he’ll be moving to a weekly show on HBO Max, described as a “departure from his current traditional talk-show format,” as part of his overall deal with WarnerMedia, which will allow him to continue making “Conan Without Borders” for TBS.
“In 1993, Johnny Carson gave me the best advice of my career: ‘As soon as possible, get to a streaming platform,’” O’Brien said last year when his new show was announced. “I’m thrilled that I get to continue doing whatever the hell it is I do on HBO Max, and I look forward to a free subscription.”
Labeling the HBO Max series the “fourth iteration” of his show, O’Brien provided few details Monday.
“Imagine a cooking show with puppets, and you’ll have the wrong idea,” he joked.
O’Brien, 58, a former writer for “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons” took over “Late Night” for David Letterman in January 1993 and stuck around until February 2009, when he left for a brief hosting gig on “The Tonight Show.” After a hiatus, O’Brien took his show on the road for the cross-country “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” from March to June 2010.
“Conan” debuted on Nov. 8, 2010 and has been on the air ever since, making O’Brien the longest serving active late-night talk show host in the U.S. after Letterman’s retirement in 2015.