Rembrandt masterworks tour the Norton, Dramaworks mounts a mystical MLK play, and FAU celebrates 100 years of Jewish history. Plus, a backyard BBQ in Delray and more in your week ahead.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “The Mountaintop”
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
Cost: $115 (includes reception); other performances $95
Contact: 561/514-4042, palmbeachdramaworks.org
The version of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that we meet in Katori Hall’s 2009 play “The Mountaintop” has seen better days. It’s April 3, 1968, the world is on fire, and King has just orated one of his indelible speeches, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” He has returned to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, not knowing that the following night he would fall to an assassin’s bullet, but showing signs of wavering physical and mental health: a persistent cough, a fear—justified, as later reporting would reveal—that he’s being surveilled by the FBI. As he struggles under the weight of the entire civil rights movement, a flirtatious hotel maid, seemingly wise beyond her years, enters his room, beginning a journey that will grow more surreal as their conversation takes unexpected turns. By placing her protagonist’s challenges with marital fidelity in the spotlight, Hall endeavored to script a “warts and all” play that wrestles with King’s many complications. Palm Beach Dramaworks’ season-opening production runs through Nov. 9.
SATURDAY
What: Opening day of “Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time: Masterpieces from the Leiden Collection”
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach
Cost: $18 general admission, $15 seniors
Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
To be in the presence of even one painting by Rembrandt van Rijn is a rare occurrence outside of the world’s most prestigious art capitals. But the opportunity to experience 17 Rembrandt works in one exhibition is a revelation, and it arrives in West Palm Beach courtesy of the Leiden Collection, a two-decade effort from Thomas and Daphne Kaplan to amass the greatest masterpieces of the Dutch Golden Age of Painting. This unprecedented exhibition takes some 70 examples of their 200-plus-piece collection on the road, with its Norton premiere coinciding with the arrival of the season and ultimately the December return of Art Basel Miami Beach. Rembrandt’s boundless emotion and extraordinary technique will be on display in works such as his seminal history painting “Minerva in Her Study” and his youthful “Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes.” Seldom-toured paintings by Johannes Vermeer, Carel Fabritius and others will expand museumgoers’ appreciation for 17th-century Dutch art, whose impacts on various art movements can still be felt today. The exhibition runs through March 29.
What: Fall Harvest BBQ
When: 5 p.m.
Where: Delray Beach Historical Society, 3 N.E. First St., Delray Beach
Cost: $25 general, $20 for DBHS members
Contact: 561/274-9578, delraybeachhistory.org
There’s no better way to support the stewards of Delray’s history than by attending this good old-fashioned barbecue with all the fixings, set amid the tranquil settings of the Historical Society’s downtown Delray Beach campus and garden. In addition to the freshly cooked food—to be washed down at a beer, wine and cider bar—the cookout includes a bevy of family-friendly activities tied to all things autumn. The seasonal classic “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” will screen on the north lawn; attendees can select their gourd of choice at an onsite pumpkin patch; kids can participate in craft making; and all ages can enjoy freshly made desserts and pastries at the DBHS’s famous Big Bake Sale. The Society will be open for visits to its history exhibitions as well, with proceeds from the event benefiting its educational programming.
What: Centennial Celebration Concert: Through the Decades
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Mizner Park Amphitheater, 590 Plaza Real, Boca Raton
Cost: Free
Contact: myboca.us/2021/mizner-park-amphitheater
If you missed the premiere of this special closing-night event from this past spring’s Festival of the Arts Boca, you’re in luck. The city is presenting an encore of the multimedia concert—this time at no cost—as part of its yearlong celebration of Boca’s centenary. Kyle Prescott, director of bands and professor of music at FAU, will conduct the Festival Boca Jazz Orchestra through a program of century-spanning music that covers the roaring ‘20s, the swing era, the ‘50s and ‘60s, and on through to the present day. Lending a sense of specificity to the proceedings, voices from Boca’s history, alongside photographs and videos from the Boca Raton Historical Society’s archives, will project behind the musicians for an immersive evening of entertainment and reflection. Bring your own chair or blanket to the event, or rent a chair from the venue for $5.
MONDAY, OCT. 27
What: Opening night of “A Century of Jews in Boca Raton: History, Community, Legacy”
When: 6 to 9:30 p.m.
Where: Schmidt Center Gallery at FAU, 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton
Cost: $45
Contact: 561/297-6124, fauevents.com
Dating back to the days when Boca Raton was but a twinkle in Addison Mizner’s eye, the city has attracted a Jewish presence—with none other than Irving Berlin investing in Mizner’s Cloister Inn. Brown’s, one of the city’s foremost restaurants from its early days, was founded by the first known Jewish residents of Boca Raton, Florence and Harry Brown. “A Century of Jews” traces this lineage and much more, charting the evolution of a city that, while instituting many of the same restrictive and antisemitic real estate practices that pervaded communities elsewhere, ultimately grew into one of the country’s most comprehensive havens for Jews. The exhibition, curated with assistance from the Boca Raton Historical Society, coincides with a free symposium Sunday and Monday at FAU’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute auditorium. Monday evening’s celebration includes a reception; free admission to the exhibition will begin on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
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