Entertainment

Watertown’s Arsenal Center Hosts Family Arts Day on Saturday

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Celebrate the arts on Saturday at the Arsenal Center for the Arts at the free Open Arts Day. The day will include live music, art and theater workshops. The family-friendly, free event takes place on Saturday, May 2, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The drop-in open house features visual and performing arts workshops taught by the skilled arsenalARTS & Watertown Children’s Theatre staff. Participants can experiment with Clay (handbuilding and pottery wheel), Printmaking, Mixed-media and other art activities for the whole family. This year’s event will also feature a very special outdoor Steamroller Printing Project where artists will carve printmaking plates, ink them up, and then roll over them with an industrial steamroller, donated for the day by the Watertown Department of Public Works, create Relief print masterpieces! Watertown Children’s Theatre will present workshop performances of two student-written plays selected by a panel of local judges, as well as an encore performance of The Main Street Kids’ Club: A MathStart Musical, which had its Boston Premiere at the Arsenal Center in March.

Charity

Arsenal Arts Founder to be Celebrated at Fiesta for the Arts

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The Arsenal Center For The Arts will host its annual spring benefit on May 19, 2015 honoring Watertown arts activist and Arsenal Center founding member Roberta Miller with this year’s Charles Mosesian award for Support of the Arts. Fiesta for the Arts begins at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 19 and features Flamenco Dance Project with dancers Sabrina Aviles, Yosi Karahashi, and Ian Hoover, with Juanito Pascual on guitar and Tania Mesa on violin. An open-air reception begins the festivities with Spanish tapas. After the award ceremony and dance performance in the Mosesian Theater, scrumptious desserts donated by local bakeries will be served. Each year, the Arsenal Center honors an individual or organization that shares the late Charles Mosesian’s commitment to his community.

Entertainment

‘My Fair Lady’ Coming to the Arsenal Center for the Arts Stage

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The Wellesley Players bring “My Fair Lady” – the hummable, quotable, wonderfully enjoyable musical for the whole family – to the Arsenal Center for the Arts stage from April 10-19. The story, the songs, the characters – you know and love them. A Broadway hit when it debuted in 1956, this fan-favorite musical has gone on to win Tony Awards, launch careers and be adapted into the Oscar-winning beloved film. The Wellesley Players brings together an award-winning team to present this beautiful musical in a manner that speaks to today’s audiences. When Professor Henry Higgins bets he can transform a Cockney flower girl into an aristocratic lady, he doesn’t anticipate that Eliza Doolittle will end up transforming him.

Entertainment

BeBop Guitars Performing During Jazz @ The Arsenal

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JAZZ @ The Arsenal returns on Tuesday, March 24, with the fan-favorite, Be-Bop Guitars, presented by the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown. Led by John Baboian, the Be-Bop Guitars features 5 guitarists from the renowned Berklee guitar faculty, plus vibes, bass, drums and trumpet for this concert of originals and standards (Gershwin, Jobim and others), with specialized arrangements for 5 guitars. Baboian has performed worldwide with his band and other musicians, including a performance with the Be-Bop Guitars at the Cape Town Jazz Festival in South Africa and has shared the stage with Frankie Avalon, Sergio Franchi, Al Martino, Ben Vereen and many more. Baboian is the director of the JAZZ at the Arsenal series. Tickets are $20; $18 for members; $15 for students, plus fees.  For tickets or more information, call the box office at 617-923-8487 or visit www.arsenalarts.org

The Jazz @ The Arsenal series features a wide variety of jazz styles performed by the best jazz ensembles in the Boston area with many headed up by Berklee’s world- renowned faculty.  The performances are held in the intimate Black Box Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts located at 321 Arsenal St.

Entertainment

Director of Children’s Theatre Play to Speak About Upcoming Production

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Award-winning Composer, Playwright, Music Director and Educator Steven Bergman will speak at the next free Text + conText program in advance of Watertown Children’s Theatre’s premiere of his musical, “Reigning Cats & Dogs.”

This free series brings creative artists and audience together in an open forum setting to discuss craft and the creative process. Bergman will speak at the Arsenal Center for the Arts on Feb. 17, 7 p.m., according to the Arsenal Center for the Arts’ announcement. Reigning Cats & Dogs is a new musical for young audiences about acceptance, personal identity, friendship and loyalty. It offers the opportunity for the cast to explore roles, text and music without reference to tried and true versions, a stretching experience.

Entertainment

New Rep Presents World Premier of ‘King of Second Avenue’

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This weekend, New Repertory Theatre will debut the world premier of “The King of Second Avenue,” a modern adaptation of “The King of Schnorrers” which features klezmer music. The play, book and lyrics by Robert Brustein and music by Hankus Netsky, runs at the Charles Mosesian Theater in the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St. in Watertown, from Feb. 7-March 1. The comedy features a Romeo and Juliet love story set against the background of antagonistic Jewish sects in the Lower East Side of 1960s Manhattan.

Entertainment

Arsenal Arts Running February Vacation Workshops for Kids

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Looking for something for your children to do this February Vacation – check out the Arsenal Center for the Arts’ workshops for kids. Monster Mash runs from Feb. 17 – 20, and features Art, Theatre and Music Workshops for children in grades K-5. The program concludes with a Friday afternoon showcase. Classes are held at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St.

Entertainment

Jazz Vocalist Gabrielle Goodman Performing in Watertown

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Jazz vocalist Gabrielle Goodman will bring her sultry voice adventurous improvisations to the Arsenal Center for the Arts in February. The JMT/Verve recording will perform as part of the Jazz @ the Arsenal series on Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Black Box Theater. The concert will feature jazz favorites and songs from her new gospel-inflected CD Spiritual Tapestry. Goodman will be joined by Yoron Israel (drums), Ron Reid (bass), Jiri Nedoma (piano) and special guest John Baboian (guitar), director of Jazz @ the Arsenal.