Experience Shakespearean fantasy in the open air, a racially charged drama from New City Players, and orchid growing 101 at Mounts. Plus, new art at the Norton and more in your week ahead.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of “Summer Heat” and “Beyond Art & Architecture”
When: 6 to 8 p.m.
Where: Arts Warehouse, 313 N.E. Third St., Delray Beach
Cost: Free
Contact: 561/330-9614, artswarehouse.org
What is the essence of a South Florida summer from a visual standpoint? The artists chosen from a recent Arts Warehouse open call endeavor to capture this feeling in all its complicated gradations, from relaxation to tension to discomfort and everything in between. The chosen artists are expected to address themes ranging from romance in the air to environmental activism in this hottest, stormiest season. Thursday also marks the opening of “Beyond Art & Architecture,” whose installations, drawings and paintings blur distinctions between its titular forms. It features the work of Brenda B., Dominique Denis, Christian Feneck, Danielle Lands, Dominique Petit-Frère and Limbo Accra. It runs through Sept. 5, while “Summer Heat” runs through Aug. 23.
What: Opening night of “The Winter’s Tale”
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Seabreeze Amphitheatre, 750 South A1A, Jupiter
Cost: Free, with suggested $5 donation
Contact: 561/543-8276, pbshakespeare.org
Tragedy begets romance and communion in William Shakespeare’s bifurcated masterpiece, this summer’s al fresco production from the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival. In the first half of “The Winter’s Tale,” which director Trent Stephens describes as decidedly “not funny,” Leontes, the jealous king of Sicily, imprisons his wife Hermione after he suspects that she has conceived a child with Polixenes, the king of Bohemia; he even orders the baby to be left to die. The chipper portion of “The Winter’s Tale” is set 16 years later, where the child, Perdita, is very much alive, and courting Florizel, Polixenes’ Bohemian son. Elements of Shakespearean comic fantasy reach their apex in the play’s back half, complete with disguises, reconnections and statues brought to life. “Last year we did ‘King Lear,’ one of the most incredible, perennial works of Shakespeare,” Stephens says. “We wanted to change it up; tragedy after tragedy can be a little much. This is truly a joyous play. … It starts with a bad king but shows that we can turn the ship; we can bring love back.” The production runs through July 20.
SATURDAY
What: Opening day of “The Virtue of Vice”
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach
Cost: $18 general, $15 seniors
Contact: 561/832-5196, norton.org
Some artists have chosen to focus on the prettier sides of life—sunsets and seascapes, flowers and cats. Others, like those selected for this exhibition, trained their gazes, brushes and pencils away from the rosier aspects of the world, and into the madding crowd of humanity’s vices. Then as now, in Europe and the Americas alike, poverty and sexual exploitation, boozing and gambling, have been rampant, and artists like the crew in “The Virtue of Vice” have observed, documented, critiqued and satirized the sordid sides of life. From Goya’s dark narratives to Reginald Marsh’s portraits of jobless New Yorkers to Peggy Bacon’s sardonic caricatures to works by Francis Bacon and Robert Henri, “The Virtue of Vice” offers a myriad of tones inspired by the myriad of realities that might have prompted others to look away. The exhibition runs through Jan. 4.
What: Opening day of the Orchid Quartet Series
When: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Where: Mounts Botanical Garden, 531 N. Military Trail, West Palm Beach
Cost: $50
Contact: 561/233-1757, mounts.org
Summer is the ideal season to begin an orchid growing hobby, as the plants begin to see leaf growth before a bloom spike in the fall. This four-part series on orchid maintenance is a great place to start, potentially transforming budding growers into knowledgeable cultivators in a month’s time. Sandi Jones of Broward Orchid Supply will lead the weekly series, which begins Saturday with, appropriately enough, “Orchid Basics.” The series continues with “Orchid Repotting” July 19, “Mounting Orchids” July 26 and “Diagnosing Orchid Pests & Diseases” Aug. 2. Expect hands-on presentations and pro trips during each lesson, and participants may purchase orchids on site. Admission to the series also includes full access to Mounts Botanical Garden.
What: Opening night of “Confederates”
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Fort Lauderdale
Cost: $40-$45
Contact: 954/376-6114, newcityplayers.org
Renowned playwright Dominique Morisseau penned this inventively structured drama set in two time periods 160 years apart. In one, Sara (Nai Fairweather), an enslaved woman from a Confederate plantation, works as a Union spy to deliver information to the north. In the modern story, Sandra (Rita Cole), a professor of political science, finds her tenured career at risk when she discovers a racist image on her office door. With both provocation and humor, Morisseau intertwines these stories of Black women confronting oppression and racial and gender bias across time, even using elements of farce as satirical arrows in her quiver. An Off-Broadway hit in 2022, “Confederates” makes its Florida debut in a production from Fort Lauderdale’s New City Players. It runs through July 27.
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