Author: Mark Arnest

There’s a simple objective measure of how good the Star Bar Players’ production of “Rabbit Hole” is: 15 minutes after the play ended opening night, a dozen or more audience members were in the Osborne Studio Theater lobby, discussing the play with the actors and one another.David Lindsay-Abaire’s play achieves the seemingly impossible in two…

This week’s Colorado Springs Philharmonic concert pairs two of the 18th century’s greatest Viennese composers – Mozart and Haydn.Conductor Lawrence Leighton Smith describes Mozart’s Serenade K. 361, “Gran Partita,” as Mozart at his greatest.”It’s K. 361, which is a juicy period,” he said. (The K. numbers are a chronological listing of Mozart’s music created by…

A child follows his dog into the street; he’s hit by a car, and dies. Eight months later, how are his parents coping?This is the premise of David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Rabbit Hole,” which opens tonight at the Osborne Studio Theater.”You think of terms like ‘moving on,’ and ‘achieving closure,’” said Susan Dawn Carson, who’s directing the…

“Music’s Fire,” the Colorado Springs Chorale’s sixth Great Works concert, explores the range of emotions music inspires.Music by Handel, Brahms, and Randall Thompson build up to William Walton’s thrilling minioratorio, “Belshazzar’s Feast,” which will feature baritone Peter Tuff.”The Handel is charming; the Brahms, comforting; the Thompson, inspiring; and ‘Belshazzar,’ you can’t ask for anything more…

   A powerfully dramatic performance of Antonín Dvorák’s Symphony No. 7 highlights this weekend’s Colorado Springs Philharmonic program.      Dvorák’s stormy Symphony climaxed a program that began with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s splashy Russian Easter Overture and Nicolò Paganini’s flashy Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring concertmaster Michael Hanson as soloist.      There are few more effective curtain-raisers than…

   The Colorado Festival of World Theatre has a new home – and a new season.      At an open house celebrating its new office in the US Bank building, Suzy Bassani, the organization’s president, announced the 2008 festival program.      This year’s festival will take place Sept. 4-9. The program will include…

Colorado Springs has never seen anything quite like “1440 Minutes.”Over a 24-hour period – which began Thursday at 5 p.m. – six groups of artists are creating art installations at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs’ Gallery of Contemporary Art, Colorado College’s Coburn Gallery – and on a bus that will shuttle between the…

In the performing arts, merely surviving can be a major victory.So it’s welcome news that the Women’s Theater Festival has not only lasted a second year but has been substantially expanded.In addition to a parade of 10-minute plays from playwrights from all over the country, the core of the Six Women Playwriting Festival, works by…

There’s a bit of Frankestein in the Pikes Peak Watercolor Society’s new “Pandora’s Box” exhibit.Not literally. But the exhibit at the Warehouse Gallery takes the society’s old formula – this is the first “Pandora’s Box” exhibit since 2004 – to a new level.There are always two elements to a “Pandora’s Box” exhibit. One is a…