April 2, 2025

“SUPER/NATURAL”: Judith Schaechter’s eight-foot-tall stained-glass dome, representing a “three-tiered cosmos,” is on view at the Michener Museum in Doylestown, Pa., April 12 through September 14.

On view April 12 through September 14 at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa., “Judith Schaechter: Super/Natural” is the first exhibition to feature the internationally known glass artist’s newest work, an eight-foot-tall stained-glass dome designed for a single viewer.

The immersive stained-glass environment represents a “three-tiered cosmos” that explores the idea of biophilia, the human tendency to connect with nature.  more

Sheryl Liebman Fisher

The “Ellarslie Open,” Trenton City Museum’s annual juried art show, invites artists to enter artwork from April 6 through May 16 via its online call for art. Sheryl Liebman Fisher, associate director of Gallery Henoch in New York City, will jury the 2025 show.

Artists may submit from anywhere and may enter up to four works. Complete instructions and timeline are found at ellarslie.org/eo42. The link to the call for art will activate Sunday, April 6. The show’s five categories are: Paintings, Works on Paper, Sculpture; Photography, and Digital Art. The top award, Best in Show Overall, carries a prize of $1,000. Five category awards and sponsored awards also carry cash prizes.

Showcasing contemporary creations by established and emerging artists, the Ellarslie Open has developed into one of the area’s premier annual juried exhibitions since its beginnings in the early 1980s. In 2024, out of 555 entries, the juror selected 110 diverse pieces by artists from across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond. The 2025 show will open with an Artists’ and Members’ Reception Saturday, June 21, and will remain on view through September 7.  more

March 26, 2025

By Stuart Mitchner

 I was willingly drawn into the whole scene, like a random character in a B. Traven novel.

—Patti Smith, from M Train

Mexico’s Mysterious Stranger” is the way James Agee characterized B. Traven in his February 2, 1948 Time review of John Huston’s film adaptation of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I’ve been haunted by Traven’s multi-faceted invisibility ever since last week’s column on the “disappearing poet” Weldon Kees, who told a friend in his last phone call in May 1955: “I may go to Mexico. To stay.” My interest in Traven began in earnest on Albert Einstein’s birthday, March 14, Pi Day in Princeton, after hearing that Traven’s The Death Ship (Das Totenschiff), published in German in 1926, is the novel Einstein named when asked what book he’d take to a desert island.

The “American” Sailor

Apparently born in Germany in February 1882, the man who claims never to have laid eyes on his birth certificate died in Mexico City on March 26, 1969, a coincidence it’s hard to ignore on March 26, 2025 — which is why I’m reading Einstein’s desert island novel, subtitled The Story of An American Sailor. The fact that Traven himself translated the book into English helps explain certain peculiarities in the easygoing conversational narrative by a German castaway passing himself off as an American while casually referring to Cincinnati as a city in Wisconsin. Left behind by an American ship, without papers or passport, the sailor is shunted by various immigration authorities from Belgium to Holland to France to Spain, where he boards a massively devastated ship called the Yorikke, no doubt after the “fellow of infinite jest” whose skull Hamlet muses over prior to the “death ship” of Shakespeare’s ending.  more

By Nancy Plum

Boheme Opera NJ turned to a story of love, hate, and revenge for this year’s presentation of Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore this past weekend at Kendall Main Stage Theater at The College of New Jersey. With a libretto by Italian playwright Salvatore Cammarano, who based his texts on a play by Spanish dramatist Antonio García Gutiérrez (which in turn was allegedly inspired by real events), Verdi’s 1853 opera was popular from the outset, despite its dark narrative but no doubt aided by the inclusion of traditional Italian tunes audiences would have known. Boheme Opera NJ’s productions on Friday night and Sunday afternoon, presented in Italian with English supertitles, featured a cast of seasoned opera performers, including singers heard in previous Boheme Opera presentations. Artistic director and conductor Joseph Pucciatti brought the story into modern times by focusing on the more sinister aspects of the plot while never losing sight of the luxurious music.

Il Trovatore was unique in that the pivotal action takes place before the opera begins or between scenes. The onstage activity and music convey the emotions of the characters and their response to what has happened, which makes the singers’ jobs that much more difficult. The storyline centers on both the love triangle among Leonora, the Count di Luna, and the mystery troubadour Manrico, and the backstory of Azucena, whose mother was burned at the stake as a witch, compounded by the possibility that Azucena had inadvertently killed her own son in retaliation. The opera was also unusual in its two female roles having equal dramatic and vocal force, and in Friday night’s performance, the singers playing Leonora and Azucena each had their change to command the stage and shine.  more

“LEGACY OF LIGHT”: Performances are underway for “Legacy of Light.” Written by Karen Zacarias and directed by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen (assisted by Tiger Brown), the play runs through April 6 at McCarter’s Matthews Theatre. Above: In a meeting that transcends centuries, 18th century scientist Émilie du Châtelet (Lenne Klingaman), left, encounters a modern woman, Millie (Gina Fonseca), who dreams of studying in France to become a fashion designer. (Photo by Daniel Rader)

By Donald H. Sanborn III

Legacy of Light is an example of a play that cannot be fully served by a synopsis, because a plot description is unlikely to do justice to the depth and beauty of the play’s themes and dialogue. It also is an example of a fairly common theatrical conceit — characters transcending their lifetimes to meet each other — that feels fresh and works brilliantly because of deft developed and execution.

In award-winning playwright Karen Zacarias’ elegant and literate comedy, a real-life historical figure, French aristocrat and physicist Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749), and a contemporary fictional character, astronomer Olivia, share scientific aspirations that are upended by impending motherhood (accidental in Émilie’s case, carefully arranged in Olivia’s).

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ON A LOCAL SCREEN: A still from “The Song of Flying Leaves” by filmmaker Armine Anda of Armenia. The film is one of 10 to be screened on March 27 at the James Stewart Film Theater. (Courtesy of Armine Anda)

The Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium in collaboration with Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts presents a screening of 10 international short films from the Thomas Edison Film Festival’s 2025 touring collection on March 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the James Stewart Film Theater, 185 Nassau Street.

The collection includes animation, documentary, experimental, narrative, and screen dance film genres from Armenia, China, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. Among those scheduled is an award-winning animated short by Princeton Visual Arts Program alum Tyler Benson, class of 2024. more

FILM FESTIVAL RETURNS: “Unearth” will be screened at the Princeton Garden Theatre as part of the Princeton Environmental Film Festival.

The Princeton Environmental Film Festival opens Friday, April 4, and runs through Sunday, April 13. A selection of films will be screened both in person in the library’s Community Room and virtually via the Eventive platform. Some will be shown in the Community Room only with others available to stream online only.

There will also be an off-site screening at the Princeton Garden Theatre on Sunday, April 6 and a shadow puppet show Saturday, April 5, at the Arts Council of Princeton. more

Princeton University Concerts (PUC) welcomes back clarinetist Martin Fröst on Wednesday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium. Fröst will be joined by violist Antoine Tamestit and the pianist and composer Shai Wosner for a program featuring their own transcriptions of music rooted in folklore and dance.

On the program are works by Dvorák, Brahms, Bach/Gounod, and Wosner. The latter is made up of arranged selections from pieces by Brahms, Lutoslawski, Bartok, and Wosner.

“Clarinetist Martin Fröst made a stunning PUC debut in 2018, and we cannot wait to have him back,” said PUC Director Marna Seltzer. “With Antoine Tamestit’s profound virtuosity on the viola and Shai Wosner’s brilliance at the piano, this promises to be an evening of both exuberance and elegance by three masters of their instruments— one that will have us alternately swooning and tapping their toes.”

Tickets ($30-50 general/$10 students and Admit All Program members) are limited. Call (609) 258-2800.

GLOBAL COMIC: Vir Das is on stage at State Theatre New Jersey on April 12.

State Theatre New Jersey presents Vir Das: Mind Fool Tour on Saturday, April 12 at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $49-$199.

Comedian and Actor Vir Das’ fourth and most recent Netflix comedy special earned Das a 2023 International Emmy nomination for “Best Comedy,” his second overall. His previous Netflix special Vir Das: For India was nominated for a 2021 International Emmy for “Best Comedy” as well.

Landing, which Das also directed, is a story about freedom, foolishness, the West, the East, the notion of home, and what it means to be a citizen of one nation in a global world. The special offers food for thought for both current citizens of India, Indian-American children of immigrants, and even those with no ties to India. Das has performed the show more than 180 times in countries across the globe including a successful run at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival. more

The Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra (GPYO) celebrates the 100th birthday of its founder, Maestro Matteo Giammario. A visionary in music education and performance, Giammario’s legacy continues to inspire generations of young musicians.

Born in Trenton to Italian immigrant parents from the Puglia region, Giammario developed a deep love for music early on, influenced by the Neapolitan melodies of his Little Italy neighborhood. While he initially aspired to play the guitar in local ensembles, his mother encouraged him to take up the violin — a decision that sparked a lifelong passion for music education and orchestral performance.

Giammario served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, training in Newport, R.I., before being stationed aboard the USS Chester (CA 27) in the Pacific Theater. His service broadened his worldview and deepened his commitment to his fellow veterans, particularly those who were injured or emotionally affected by wartime experiences. more

PAST AND PRESENT: Cast members of “Now and Then,” a romantic “dramedy” by Sean Grennan, on stage through March 30 the Heritage Center in Morrisville, Pa.

ActorsNET presents Now and Then, Sean Grennan’s time-bending romantic “dramedy,” through March 30 at The Heritage Center in Morrisville, Pa.

Inspired by the word “énouement,” the play explores the bittersweet realization of how past choices have shaped the present, and invites audiences to reflect on the inevitability of time’s passage, reminding us that every moment — no matter how fleeting — holds the power to shape our journey.  more

County Executive Dan Benson has announced that the Mercer County Park Commission’s Summer Concert Series will kick off its 2025 season on July 11 with Formerly of Chicago — The Players. Performances continue through August 22.

The Friday evening concerts are $5 per ticket. A new, limited-time season pass option offers access to all seven concerts for $25. The lineup includes Yellow Brick Road and All About Joel on July 18; Best of the Eagles on July 25; Yacht Rock Gold Experience and Elliot Lurie on August 1; Big Hix and Tennessee Whiskey on August 8; FEARLESS the Taylor Swift Experience on August 15; and the Earth, Wind, and Fire tribute band on August 22.

As the sun sets, families can bring out blankets and chairs to the expansive Mercer County Park festival grounds. The introduction of free parking last year made the concerts more accessible than ever, leading to record attendance. With the new season pass, patrons can get preferred parking, fast-pass entry, and exclusive perks throughout the season. more

CHAMBER CONCERT: Musicians at Princeton United Methodist Church offer a free chamber music concert on Saturday, April 5 at 5 p.m. From left are Paul Manulik, viola; Lindsay Diehl, reader; Jenni Collins, soprano; Scott Collins, clarinet; and Julia Hanna, piano. 

Chamber music will be presented in an intimate setting on Saturday, April 5 at 5 p.m., at Princeton United Methodist Church, on the corner of Nassau Street and Vandeventer Avenue.

The concert features the works of Mozart, Debussy, and Bernstein, presented by Paul Maniluk, viola; Scott Collins, clarinet; Jenni Collins, soprano, Lindsay Diehl, reader; and Julia Hanna, piano.

This benefit concert is free and open to the public. A reception with light refreshments will follow. Tickets are not required.  All donations will help support the ministries of Princeton United Methodist Church.

Clipper Erickson

The Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey presents a concert titled “Drama & Irony” at Patriots Theater at the War Memorial in Trenton on Saturday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. Sandro Naglia conducts.
The program includes works by Rossini, Mozart, and Beethoven. Pianist Clipper Erickson is the soloist in the Mozart Piano Concerto in D minor K 466.

A pre-concert lecture by Joel Phillips takes place at 6:15 p.m. in the lower lobby. At 6:45 p.m., Trenton Music Makers presents a “curtain raiser.”

Tickets are available at capitalphilharmonic.org.

MOZART AND MORE: David A. McConnell conducts Voices Chorale NJ and the Berks Sinfonietta in the Mozart “Requiem” and the “Requiem” by Brazilian composer Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia on May 3.

On Saturday, May 3 at 4 p.m., two settings of the Requiem Mass will be presented by Voices Chorale NJ. David A. McConnell, artistic director of Voices, conducts.

Mozart’s Requiem was incomplete when he died in 1791. Garcia completed his Requiem in 1816 after being inspired by Mozart’s masterpiece. Both works will be accompanied at the May program by the 21-piece Berks Sinfonietta Orchestra. more

The Princeton Garden Theatre has announced the inaugural First Takes Shorts Series — a program of short films produced by high school, college, and young independent artists from the community. After the screenings on April 3, the audience will have the opportunity to engage these talented local filmmakers in a live Q&A discussion.

The Garden’s programmers sifted through 215 submissions to select nine titles across three categories: Student Filmmaker, for high school students; Emerging Filmmaker, for college students; and Indie Filmmaker, for those older than high school or college age.

The program exhibits an eclectic range of style, tone, and genre. Consider Sons of Adam, a sci-fi picture about a religious cult shot in stark black and white. Or Albion Rose, a darkly comedic fantasy that digs into the tense relationship between two sisters. Then there’s A Squonk’s Day, a stop-motion tale that brings to life a whimsical creature who tends to weep spontaneously. Each short will demonstrate the creative vitality of the local community that the Garden seeks to celebrate and promote.

The First Takes Shorts Series is supported by a grant courtesy of the Vesta Fund.

Tickets for the program are available at the box office or online at princetongardentheatre.org/films/first-take-garden.

“GALAXY GATEWAY” This work by by Marina Ahun of Princeton is part of “Cultural Connections: Eastern European Artists from the Greater Trenton Area,” on view April 5 through June 8 at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie in Cadwalader Park.

“Cultural Connections: Eastern European Artists from the Greater Trenton Area,” on view at the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie April 5 through June 8, highlights the work of regional artists with Eastern European backgrounds. An opening reception is on April 5 from 2 to 4 p.m., and an artists’ talk is scheduled for Saturday, April 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. Also related to the show is a Pysanky Ukrainian Easter Egg Workshop on Thursday, April 19, 6 to 9 p.m., by artist Basia Andrusko of Yardley, Pa.

The artists of Cultural Connections:

Marina Ahun is a Princeton-based artist known in part for her watercolors that explore the architecture of Princeton, Trenton, and New York City. She was born in Soviet Russia, studied at the Imperial Academy of fine Arts in St. Petersburg, and is the licensed and commissioned artist for Princeton University. more

“SISTERS”: This photograph by Myhanh Bosse has been accepted for the 32nd annual “Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition,” on view March 30 through April 18 at the Phillips’ Mill Community Association in New Hope, Pa.

With its enduring theme of “Photography as Art,” the 32nd annual celebration of photography and photographers at Phillips’ Mill will open to the public on March 30. The Phillips’ Mill Community Association will hold not only a three-week juried exhibition, but also a week-long Mill Photo Committee members’ show.

This year, a panel of three jurors undertook the task of selecting 150 photos from the 1,037 submitted by photographers from across the country. The jurors were Jennifer King, an internationally acclaimed landscape and fine-art photographer; Kristen King, a Bucks County high school teacher of photography for over 35 years; and Nora Odendahl, a frequent exhibitor in past “Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibitions” and co-chair of the Mill Photo Committee. more

“BOYS”: Children’s Book Illustrator Mary Lundquist, whose work is shown here, will be the featured presenter for the “Inside the Artist’s Studio” series at Princeton Makes in the Princeton Shopping Center on Saturday, March 29 at 6:30 p.m.

On Saturday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m., painter and illustrator Mary Lundquist will be the featured presenter for the “Inside the Artist’s Studio” series at Princeton Makes in the Princeton Shopping Center. Lundquist, the illustrator of nine picture books, including as author of Cat & Bunny and The Little Forest Keepers, will discuss her life as an artist and her journey to becoming a published children’s book creator.

Lundquist has worked with publishers such as HarperCollins, Random House, and Bloomsbury. During her talk, Lundquist will show her illustrations, fine art, comics, and ongoing projects while weaving in personal stories. more

March 19, 2025

By Stuart Mitchner

Nobody has seen or heard from Weldon Kees since Monday, July 18, 1955.

—Anthony Lane, in “The Disappearing Poet”

I was on my way out of the Bryn Mawr-Wellesley Preview Sale with $10 worth of books when I noticed a devastated Cedok guide to Prague on a table of discards. Although the back cover was detached, the book was full of information and photos from a time when Franz Kafka and his family were living in the Czech capital. Attached to the ravaged back cover was a large colorful fold-out map of Prague in first-rate condition, which I’ve been using to locate entries from Kafka’s Diaries 1910-1923 (Schocken 1975).

On March 14, 1915/2025 I found Kafka “in Chotek Park. Most beautiful spot in Prague. Birds sang, the Castle with its arcade, the old trees hung with last year’s foliage, the dim light.” Even if you can’t “be there” in 2025 by tracing his movement on a map, you can at least feel closer to the living, breathing, feeling, thinking man who began the same entry: “A morning: In bed until half past eleven. Jumble of thoughts which slowly takes shape and hardens in incredible fashion.” In the evening he goes for a walk with “the defensible but untrustworthy ideas of the morning” in his head. Struck by the phrase “in incredible fashion,” I looked up his most notoriously “incredible” work and found that Verwandlung (Metamorphoses) was published six months later in a journal and in December 1915 as a book.  more

By Nancy Plum

In a concert linking the crispness of winter to a hint of spring, New Jersey Symphony performed works of Claude Debussy, Nico Muhly, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, showing the depth of both player and conducting talent. The Symphony divided the conducting responsibilities in Friday night’s performance at Richardson Auditorium between Music Director Xian Zhang and the Symphony’s Colton Conducting Fellow Gregory D. McDaniel. A Houston native, McDaniel has conducted opera companies and orchestras nationwide, as well as in Canada.

McDaniel directed the first half of the program, leading off with André Caplet’s orchestral arrangement of Claude Debussy’s popular Clair de Lune for piano. Originally a movement in a piano suite, Clair de Lune became one of the composer’s most recognized pieces, leading to numerous arrangements, including at least six for orchestra. McDaniel began Debussy’s familiar music languidly, with a dreamy flow from the strings topped off by delicate flute passages from Bart Feller and Kathleen Nester. McDaniel built the sound well, always knowing exactly where he was going. The overall effect was lush, sustained by a subtle pair of horns.  more

NOT-SENSIBLE SHOES: Cast members of the musical “Kinky Boots,” which tells the true story of a British factory owner who transformed his output of boring loafers to stilettos for drag queens, on stage at Kelsey Theatre March 21-30.

A struggling maker of men’s shoes reverses his fortunes when he transforms his footwear from functional to fabulous with the help of an entertainer in need of some sturdy stilettos in the musical Kinky Boots, at the Kelsey Theatre, March 21-30, on Mercer County Community College’s West Windsor Campus.

Presented by Thank You 5 Productions, Kinky Boots is based on the true story of Charlie, who realizes the demand is dying down for his sensible men’s loafers. A chance meeting with Lola, a London entertainer in need of a sturdier pair of heels, results in a partnership leading to the factory pivoting to make shoes for a new clientele: drag queens.  more

Emily Boksner, Westminster Conservatory student, will perform with the Westminster Community Orchestra under the direction of Ruth Ochs on Sunday, March 30 at 3 p.m. in Hillman Hall on the Westminster campus.

On Sunday, March 30 at 4 p.m., Princeton Pro Musica and Roxey Ballet will join creative forces to perform Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in the Kendall Main Stage Theater at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, under the direction of Princeton Pro Musica Artistic Director Ryan J. Brandau.

Carmina Burana is a set of poems and songs written by Bavarian monks in the 13th century, uncovered in the early 19th century, and set for large mixed chorus, treble chorus, and orchestra by Carl Orff in 1936. While written nearly 800 years ago, the poems are relevant.

Themes of time, fortune, springtime, passion, debauchery, and satirical critiques of those in power are in the text, eschewing religious piety, and embracing instead basic and primal human experiences. more

Maria Irene Fornés
(Photo by James M. Kent)

Events highlighting theater-maker María Irene Fornés including a reconstruction of Fornés’ last play, Dr. Kheal, and a live podcast recording, both open to the public, part of a major symposium on Fornés at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts.

The 2025 Latinx Theatre Commons María Irene Fornés Institute Symposium is a co-production of Latinx Theatre Commons and the Lewis Center for the Arts.

Born in Cuba in 1930, Fornes is a playwright, director, designer, and teacher who became a guiding presence for emerging theater artists of the 1980s and ’90s, especially those invested in staging feminist, queer, and Latinx aesthetics and experiences. She died in 2018.

DrKheal2: One Big Thing offers a tandem encounter with Fornés’ 1968 play on March 21 at 5 p.m. in which a learned professor delivers a lecture about the meaning of all things. Professor Brian Herrera and alum Kyle Berlin each perform the role of Dr. Kheal simultaneously in different time periods in different venues for half the audience. The audiences then switch venues and experience the other Dr. Kheal, followed by an interactive conversation about the futures of higher education. The event is in CoLab and the Wallace Theater in the Lewis Arts complex. more