Acts & Openings for Friday, December 12, 2008

• Gingerbread festival

• Free Jazz Ensemble and Wind Symphony concert

• Meet astronaut Bruce McCandless

• Kaua‘i Chorale celebrates Christmas

• Small Works exhibition

• Let’s Make A Movie Together

Gingerbread festival

Tomorrow, Kukui Grove

Shopping Center

Easter Seals Hawai‘i will host a gingerbread house-building festival at the Kukui Grove Shopping Center. Reservations required. Call 245-7141 for more information. Each package includes the gingerbread pieces to create a house, a variety of candies, icing, a cardboard foundation, a bag for transportation and an hour and a half reserved area to use as a workspace.

The cost is $39, $20 of which is tax-deductible. Easter Seals Hawai‘i program staff provide physical, occupational and speech therapy, as well as family support, training and care coordination for infants and toddlers from birth to age three who have a developmental delay or other special need.

The festival is from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., tomorrow.

Free Jazz Ensemble and Wind Symphony concert

7 p.m., today, Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts Center

Kaua‘i’s Community Jazz Ensemble and Wind Symphony will perform together under the direction of Larry McIntosh.

The program will include music from Miles Davis and Duke Ellington plus a Big Band Christmas. Sultry singer, Peggy Lake will be featured in “Fever” and  “When I Fall In Love.” Other swinging tunes include “The Buckethead Shuffle” and “The Subtle Sermon.” The 42 member Wind Symphony program includes popular favorites like “Anchors Aweigh,”  a Glenn Miller medley, and “A Canadian Brass Noel.” The group will play two new pieces by American composers: “Solas Ane,” when translated from Gaelic means “joy and yesteryear.” The piece was written by American Samuel Hazo, and debuted in 2006 and “Song of the Gandy Dancers” by Richard Saucedo which premiered in 2007.

The piece is based on a chant that railroad workers sang laying tracks in Alabama during the late 1940s.

The crews used special tools known as “Gandy’s” to lever the rail tracks into position.

Meet astronaut Bruce McCandless

Kaua‘i Veteran’s Museum, today

Retired Captain Bruce McCandless will give a presentation following a dinner hosted by the Navy League and Kaua‘i Veterans Museum. McCandless graduated second in his class from the Naval Academy in 1958 and was the first astronaut to float untethered in outer space. The reception begins at 5 p.m., followed by dinner catered by Kaua‘i Community College culinary graduates. McCandless’ program begins at 7 p.m. Monies raised benefit the Navy League’s annual scholarship program for high school seniors and the museum’s displays of military memorabilia.

Tickets are $50 and available through the museum at 246-1135 or by calling Moe at 651-6592.

Kaua‘i Chorale celebrates Christmas

Tomorrow and Sunday

Be entertained by 75 beautiful voices bringing to Kaua‘i “A Glorious Christmas.” Performances will be held at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at  Kaua‘i Community College Performing Arts and again at 5 p.m. Sunday at the North Shore Christian Church. The chorale is under the  leadership of Lois Ricciardi and accompanied by pianist Virginia Shepherd. Also assisting are woods, strings and brass ensemble and the Sunshine Express of Kalaheo School. Fun songs such as “Sing Hey” and “Sleigh Ride” with the serious music of Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria,” along with other Christmas music in choral and solo will round out a full program. For tickets visit these outlets: Aloha-n-Paradise in Waimea, Dr. Ding’s in Hanapepe, Kalaheo Coffee Company and Cafe, Lappert’s Ice Cream in Koloa and Princeville, Pictures Plus at Kukui Grove Shopping Center, Zack’s Frozen Yogurt in the Coconut Marketplace, Kaua’I Sound and Music in Kapa’a, and the Kilauea Pharmacy.

For more ticket information call Kay Koike at 337-1882. The Kaua’i Chorale is sponsored in part by the County of Kaua‘i and the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority.

Small Works exhibition

Artist reception, today

The Kaua‘i Society of Artists announces its annual Small Works Holiday 2008 Exhibition. Opening reception is 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. today, Kukui Grove Exhibition Hall. Juror’s “walk and talk,” 6 p.m., followed by an awards ceremony. The lecture with Maile Andrade on Native Hawaiian Visual Culture will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The exhibit will be open free to the public until January 30. For more information visit kauaisocietyofartists.org

Let’s Make A Movie Together

Jan. 5 to Jan. 9

The Storybook Theatre

During the school winter break The Storybook Theatre will offer its Media Arts Academy for young people ages 7 to 14 years of age. The program will be held daily from 8 a.m. until noon beginning Jan. 5 through Jan. 9. The five day program, focused on visual arts, storytelling and performing arts, will carefully select a Hawaiian story to produce into a short feature movie made by the participants. Each day, professional instructors Cindy Combs and Mark Jeffers will incorporate language skill-building activities, powers of storytelling and music into storyboarding and TV production. Students will enjoy making their stories into real media and taking home their movie to share with family and friends.

Students will meet every day at Storybook Theatre’s media studio in Hanapepe. Then, on one day of the program they will field trip for a day’s excursion into a different island location selected for the movie. They will bring back their experiences to create the setting and story into media at Storybook Theatre’s children’s media studio. Enrollment is limited to 15 children between 7 and 14 years of age.

Tuition is $125 for the week-long program.  Nutritious snacks will be provided each day.

This program is partially funded by the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts with funds from the Hawaii State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For further information contact The Storybook Theatre at 335-0712 or markjeffers@hawaii.rr.com