Penn Museum is thinking of developing new programs for teens, but first they want to hear from neighborhood teens and parents. The museum is currently conducting a review and asking that teens and parents participate in one, or both, of the following ways:

• Complete a survey (see links below) and return it to the museum (by email to pennmuseumteenprograms@gmail.com or by physically dropping them off at the museum entrance, 3260 South Street) by August 30.
• Participate in a focus group and discuss what you have appreciated about the Penn Museum in the past and how you would like them to focus their energy as they move into teen programming.

The two remaining times for focus groups (both teen and adult) are:

Sunday, Aug 25, 3:00-4:00 p.m. (in Group Dining)
Monday Aug 26, 6:00-7:00 p.m. (in Group Dining)

Teen Survey

Parent Survey

West Philly-based Scribe Video Center kicks off its annual, month-long Street Movies! series on Thursday, Aug 1. Street Movies!, which is now a citywide event thanks to Scribe’s collaboration with community groups in various sections and neighborhoods in the city, will again bring entertaining as well as thought-provoking independent films and live performances outdoors.

Street Movies! uses short films as “a springboard to facilitate audience discussion about issues like immigration, the environment, and education,” according to Scribe Program Associate Jonathan Farbowitz.

This year’s lineup of animated, documentary and narrative shorts focuses on youth-produced videos and features films about refugees, the environment and the arts heritage of Philadelphia. The Street Movies! program also includes short animations from Nigeria and Kenya, as well as from New York-based StoryCorps’ oral history series.

In addition to film, select Street Movies! events open with a live performance. This year’s featured performers include renowned poet Ursula Rucker and guitarist Tim Motzer, musicians from Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, the South East Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC)’s Hip-Hop Heritage B-Boy Crew, and the all-female drumming group Music Over Matter. Notable media personalities and community leaders serve as emcees for each Street Movies! event, and facilitate post-screening discussions with the audience.

All events start at 7:45 p.m. and are free, open to the public and family-friendly.

In West Philly, there will be two screenings: in the Haddington section on Thursday, Aug 1 and in Cobbs Creek on Wednesday, Aug 21. More details below.

Thursday, August, 1
Haddington
Host: Urban Tree Connection
Location: The Memorial Garden
536 North 54th Street
Screening: Can’t Hold Me Back, about a first-generation high school graduate, youth-produced Messages in Motion films, and other shorts about the environment and other issues affecting youth.
Opening performance: Ursula Rucker and Tim Motzer
Rain Date: Monday, August 5

Wednesday, August 21
Cobbs Creek
Host: Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center (CCCEC)
Location: CCCEC
700 Cobbs Creek Parkway (63^rd Street and Catherine Street) by the creek
Screening: Plastic Bag by Ramin Bahrani, a short film about the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker.
Emcee: Serena Reed
Rain Location: CCCEC Building

For more information, please visit: http://www.scribe.org/streetmovies or the Street Movies! Facebook page.

Prospero (Catharine K. Slusar) and daughter Miranda (Hannah Gold). Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local

Last night, Shakespeare in Clark Park (SCP) opened its eighth season with “The Tempest” at the “Bowl” on 43rd Street and Chester Avenue. The packed crowd laughed and reveled in the Bard’s majestic epic, which is directed by Swim Pony Performing Arts Artistic Director Adrienne Mackey and stars Catherine K. Slusar as protagonist (or antagonist, depending on your view) Prospero–a lead role typically cast with a male actor. And, without a doubt, Sean Hoots of local outfit Hoots & Hellmouth exceeded expectations with his ethereal and enchanted music.

Make sure to catch “The Tempest” at Clark Park before it closes on July 28. The remaining shows are on Thursday-Sunday, beginning at 7 p.m.

Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local.

Play On, Philly! students performing last year at Saint Francis de Sales School. (Photo Mike Lyons/West Philly Local)

The talented kids from Play On, Philly!, the innovative music and social development program based in West Philadelphia, will be playing live this Thursday, July 25 in a big ensemble concert. The concert will feature musicians from grades 1-9 who are participating in the program’s summer session.

Students in wind ensemble, string orchestra and full orchestra will tackle the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona’s La Comparsa and A La Media Noche, a Puerto Rican folk tune. Paul Bryan, dean of the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music, will conduct the students, who concentrated on world music over the summer. The ensemble is made up of 120 students from St. Francis de Sales School, Freire Charter Middle School, the Jubilee School and West Philadelphia Catholic High School.

The performance begins at 7 p.m. at West Philadelphia Catholic High School (4501 Chestnut St.). Entrance through parking lot on 46th Street between Chestnut and Ludlow.

The West Philly-based Play On, Philly! began in 2010 at the Saint Francis de Sales School with 110 kids ages 6-13. The idea was to bring enrichment to their lives through music. Last spring renown jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis stopped by Saint Francis de Sales to talk to students in the program. Students go through a rigorous training program that includes three hours daily of after school instruction by some of the city’s best teaching musicians. Students enrolled in the tuition-free program learn an orchestral instrument and receive instruction in music theory, composition, music history as well as ensemble performance. Play On, Philly! hopes to establish a program in every city neighborhood.

      Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

Stranded on an island with daughter Miranda for over a decade, Prospero, the overthrown Duke of Milan, ensorcels a wild storm to maroon a passing ship carrying passengers returning from a royal wedding.

It’s a prophetic tempest with a purpose–with the use of illusion, manipulation, and supernatural wildlings, Prospero plans to expose his brother Antonio as abject for supplanting his post, setting in motion the fantastical emprise of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

Come Wednesday, July 24, the early 17th century play will be the subject of Shakespeare in Clark Park‘s (SCP) latest production when it returns to  “The Bowl” at Clark Park for its eighth summer season. SCP’s “The Tempest” will be directed by Adrienne Mackey, Swim Pony Performing Arts artistic director and adjunct Theatre professor at Drexel University, and designed by veteran SCP thespian Bradley Wrenn (also Mackey’s husband). Performances of “The Tempest,” held for free at 43rd Street and Chester Avenue, will start at 7 p.m. and run through Sunday, July 28.

“‘The Tempest’ is different from anything SCP has tackled before,” said Shakespeare in Clark Park Artistic Director Marla Burkholder. “It is a magical fantasy that falls outside of comedy and tragedy. It felt like a good challenge for the company to move away from the strictly comedic works we have done for the past [five] summers as we move into the realm of the less known pieces from Shakespeare’s cannon.”

Under Mackey’s direction, SCP’s production of “The Tempest” will color itself outside the theater lines. While Prospero’s role is typically cast with a male actor, Mackey has brought in Barrymore Award-winning actress Catharine Slusar to take on the contentious lead, describing the Bryn Mawr theater director as “an incredible power house…able to take on the challenge of a character that is controlling an opaque.”  Continue Reading

Penn Museum is bringing back its family-friendly “Summer Wonder” series, with the first program this Wednesday, July 3, when families with children are invited to celebrate the Native American culture and learn traditional Native American dance with the Native Nations Dance Theater.

The “Summer Wonder” programs will run weekly on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. through August 21, 2013 and will feature a great lineup of performances and demonstrations, including stories about ancient Greek mythology, a marionette theater, an exploration of medieval music and instruments, contemporary and ancient African and African American tales, songs and games, and more.

All “Summer Wonder” programs are free with Penn Museum admission. For more information and the full program schedule, please visit Penn Museum’s website and also check our Events Calendar for upcoming programs.