Bloomsburg, PA – February 19, 2024 – Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble is proud to announce its upcoming production, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson- Apt. 2B, a fresh and captivating take on the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries, directed by guest artist, Nora Gair. Gair joins us from Philadelphia, where she works as a freelance theatre director, intimacy choreographer, and teaching artist. “ (I am)committed to threading classic themes with radically new and inclusive life for audiences today,” said Gair.
Set in contemporary times, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson- Apt. 2B reimagines the iconic detective duo as two brilliant women living in a bustling urban apartment complex. When a mysterious case lands on their doorstep, they must use their keen intellects, sharp wit, and evolving bond to unravel the enigma before them. As they navigate through a labyrinth of clues and suspects, they discover that the truth may be closer to home than they ever imagined.
Featuring a cleverly crafted script by award-winning playwright Kate Hamill, “Oh, to shake the dust from an old classic and polish it into a fresh, hip and uproarious good time. Kate, Kate, Kate. How did you do it, honey? Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson – #2B…world premieres a bloody good gender-bent mur-der whodunit.” -Lonita Cook, BlackBeeBuzz.com,
The ensemble cast includes some of Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble’s finest actors, including:
Kimie Muroya 室屋季美恵 as Sherlock Holmes
Amy Rene Byrne as Joan Watson
Aaron White as- Lestrade, Elliot Monk, and more
Arrianna Daniels as Irene Adler, Mrs. Hudson, Mrs. Drebbler
Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson- Apt 2B will run from March 28th-April 14th, 2024 at the Alvina Krause Theatre, 226 Center Street, Bloomsburg, PA 17815. Tickets are now available for purchase online at www.bte.org or by calling the Box Office at 570-784-8181.
Don’t miss your chance to experience this thrilling and thought-provoking production brought to life by Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble. Join us as we embark on a journey of mystery, friendship, and discovery with Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson-Apt. 2B.
Coming to Bloom U. in the 2021-22 year. Public ticket sales will begin Monday, August 2nd.
9/25/2021, 7:30 PM – Black Violin
Black Violin is an American hip hop duo from Fort Lauderdale, Florida comprising two classically trained string instrumentalists, Kevin Sylvester and Wilner Baptiste, who go by the stage names Kev Marcus and Wil B. For over a decade, the classical-meets-hip-hop duo has steadily built a devoted following — culminating in two sold-out shows at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the National Symphony Orchestra commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death.
10/15/2021, 7:30 PM – The Brazilian All Stars (Homecoming Weekend!)
Join the Brazilian All Stars for a uniquely memorable and spectacular musical journey through Brazil’s most famous songs, Sambas, Bossa Novas, Ballads, Choro, Fado, virtuoso instrumental tracks and more. The unique sound of the music of Brazil is a fusion of styles: Portuguese, American jazz, Cuban and African rhythms, plus additional influences from other South American regions. Veteran Brazilian musicians join with the next generation of talent in this super group, The Brazilian All Stars.
11/12/2021, 7:30 PM – The Second City
Chicago’s legendary sketch and improv comedy theater tours the nation with “The Best of The Second City.” This must-see show features the best sketches and songs from The Second City’s history made famous by superstars like Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Keegan-Micahel Key, Aidy Bryant, Alan Arkin and more. Fresh, fast and always spectacularly funny, The Second City is celebrating nearly sixty years of producing cutting edge satirical revues and launching the careers of generation after generation of comedy’s best and brightest.
1/31/2022 through 2/5/2022 (Public Performance on 2/5/2022, 7:30 PM) – Actors from the London Stage
Actors From The London Stage (AFTLS) company ethos and mission is simplicity at its finest. Five actors take the stage, with minimal props and costumes, and direct themselves in a performance of a complete Shakespeare play, with each actor portraying multiple roles.
But the performance is only part of this experience – Bloomsburg University will be hosting AFTLS in residence all week to engage with our Theatre Arts students and lead a series of classes and workshops throughout the residency week. The goal: to interpret Shakespeare’s text as a blue print for performance and as a gateway to its wide-ranging, transformative poetry.
2/19/2022, 7:30 PM – Syncopated Ladies
Syncopated Ladies is a female tap dance band from Los Angeles, CA created by Emmy award nominated tap dancer and choreographer Chloe Arnold. Syncopated Ladies’ viral videos have amassed over 50 million views, and their work has been featured on FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, Good Morning America, at the US Open, and in partnership with megastar Beyoncé. The band also works to provide equal opportunity and access to high quality dance education to underrepresented minorities while creating healing works of art that celebrate culture, build self-esteem, and empower the voices of girls and women.
3/25/2022, 7:30 PM – Tango Argentina
Marcos Ayala, artistic director and choreographer, has created an extraordinary and thrilling program with Tango Argentina. Designed so that the public can imagine how tango has evolved throughout its history, Tango Argentina features a dozen of Argentina’s greatest tango dancers and musicians. Since 2016, it has toured extensively throughout China, Russia, Sweden, Turkey, Central and South America. Bloomsburg University is excited to be part of their inaugural tour across the United States.
As part of its mission of bringing the arts to all communities throughout our region and of supporting artists throughout their careers, The Exchange has again partnered with a Bloomsburg University professor to fund the annual award given to a Bloom U. student who has taken the initiative to enter work in Exchange Gallery shows. By building a resumé while also supporting a local non-profit organization’s programs, the winning student demonstrates promise of building a life in art and as a community member.
This year we will raffle off an 8″ x 8″ oil-on-canvas painting by Professor of painting Vince Hron, currently the chair of the Department of Art & Art History. Vince has done paintings of clouds for a long time; one of his giant canvases hung at the top of the stairs in the old Moose Exchange for a couple of years, before the opening of the Stairwell Gallery. Vince has three paintings this size in a gallery in Omaha right now, and they sell for $500 each — so you could take this one home for much less!
Tickets sell for $2 each, three for $5, seven for $10, available with cash or check at The Exchange from now until the drawing, which will take place at the end of the Listening Room on Wednesday, the 18th of December. The winner takes home the painting — and every participant has the satisfaction of supporting the arts at Bloomsburg University.
Chad Andrews, Assistant Professor of printmaking, proposed the idea of the award in 2018; we at The Exchange responded with enthusiasm. “The Exchange owes its ongoing success to collaborations like this,” says Oren B. Helbok, executive director. “By specifically celebrating students who engage with our programming, we highlight the importance of the multifaceted relationship between Bloomsburg University and our whole community.” Chad has had a long association with The Exchange, serving on its board 2011-2016 and founding the Stairwell Gallery, now the Exchange Gallery.
Type: Exhibition Opportunities
Posted by: Bloomsburg University
Deadline: Tuesday, December 31st, 2019
Open Call for Art
Bloomsburg University’s Dept. of Art is accepting exhibition proposals for the Haas Gallery of Art, and The Gallery at Greenly Center for the upcoming exhibition schedule, Fall 2020 through Fall 2022. All media are accepted; work will be considered for solo and small group shows. Both Galleries are secure facilities. Some funding is available to assist artists with exhibition costs. Artists selected for solo shows at either gallery must be able to attend a reception, and give a lecture about their work. All artwork is insured. Submission deadline is December 31, 2019. Please submit cover letter, along with CV, artist statement, and 12 examples of recent work. All items must be a PDF or Zip File. No hard copies. We cannot return materials.
Send to:
c/o Scott M Roper [email protected]
Bloomsburg University
Old Science Hall
Dept. of Art
400 E 2nd St.
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
Join us at the Greenly Center in downtown Bloomsburg on Thursday, the 7th of November, 6:30-8:30 p.m., as special guest Charles Marohn of StrongTowns.org talks about “The Foolproof Town: Identifying Productive Places”. No cost to attend, light refreshments available.
Among the questions that Strong Towns raises: What development do we want? What do we not want? What does “development” even mean? And how do we ensure wealth creation that benefits all of our fellow citizens?
Wherever you live in Columbia or Montour County – in town, borough, or township – these questions matter to you and to your communities: to your families, friends, and neighbors. This event aims to energize the region-wide discussion so people from throughout the Counties will work together to find answers for each of our places and for our region as a whole.
Please RSVP to Oren B. Helbok at The Exchange: 570-317-2596 or [email protected].
The Exchange thanks our lead sponsor, DRIVE, which serves the economic development of both Montour and Columbia County by providing professional services to help businesses create and retain family-sustaining jobs. Other sponsors include Downtown Bloomsburg, Inc.; the Danville Business Alliance; the Central Susquehanna Community Foundation; the Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau; the United Way of Columbia and Montour Counties; and Community Strategies Group.
Charles L. “Chuck” Marohn, Jr., is the founder and president of Strong Towns and the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity. He is a professional engineer licensed in the state of Minnesota and a land-use planner with two decades of experience; he holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a master’s of urban and regional planning, both from the University of Minnesota. Marohn hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. He is featured in the documentary film Owned: A Tale of Two Americas and was named one of the Ten Most Influential Urbanists of all time by Planetizen. For more information about Strong Towns, visit StrongTowns.org.
For more information about The Exchange, visit ExchangeArts.org or Facebook.com/ExchangeArtsDotOrg or call 570-317-2596. For more information about DRIVE, visit DRIVEindustry.com or call 570-284-4296.
We at Art Of PA are looking to highlight some of the artists and musicians in the area in a new section we are calling “Up Close and Personal.” To kick off the inaugural edition we sat down with our Outreach Committee member and Bloomsburg University Piano Instructor, Charisse Baldoria to find out how she got into music and how she found her way to Bloomsburg.
Charisse Baldoria is a Philippine-born pianist who fuses Western pianism with her Southeast Asian and Hispanic heritage and integrates various art forms into a concert experience. She is a prizewinner of international competitions, she has performed on five continents, establishing a career as a pianist with multidisciplinary interests.
Currently, Charisse is an Associate Professor of Piano at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Baldoria also taught at the University of the Philippines during her Fulbright home residence requirement. In addition to piano lessons, she has taught piano literature, piano seminar, class piano, music appreciation, Latin American music, and harpsichord (whose program she established at the University of the Philippines). She also founded Bloomsburg’s Piano Day, an annual event where interested piano students get to perform at Mitrani Hall and receive masterclasses from Dr. Baldoria and top pedagogues.
Charisse’s interest in music started at a very young age. At the age of 4 years old she found herself instantly attracted to the sight and sounds of a piano. If her parents were visiting friends, Charisse would be found tapping away at the keys and exploring the various sounds coming from their piano. After her first discovery of the piano, she begged her parents to get a piano for the house and one day this magnificent instrument arrived and was a lot more accessible. The first song Charisse learned how to play on the piano was the French nursery rhyme “Frère Jacques.” She had a very keen ear for music and learned to play the song by sound alone. Charisse started taking formal music lessons at the age of 5 from her neighborhood teacher.
As Charisse progressed with her musical training she quickly outgrew the skills of her teacher and found a new, highly trained pianist at the University of Philippines that taught her from age 7 to 21. After completing her undergrad in the Phillipenes, Charisse was faced with a crossroads and had to decide between studying abroad or becoming a lawyer. Charisse was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and pursued her Master’s degree at the University of Michigan. While there she studied piano with Logan Skelton and also earned a Doctorate degree. After grad school, Charisse moved to Bloomsburg, PA to take a job at Bloomsburg University as a piano professor. Currently, she provides lessons and classes on the piano and also teaches music appreciation.
Her piano students have performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall selected from Honors Recital auditions, and gone into graduate programs in piano performance. She has regularly coached advanced piano students in the Philippines, some of whom have gone into music programs in the United States and won scholarships.
Outside of her academic career, Charisse has performed all over the world. Typically if she is working on a new piece, she will debut it in Bloomsburg and then take it on tour. Her last musical program was actually quite a collaborative performance and featured two guest singers. As Charisse explores her musical creativity she loves collaborating with other artists and industry professionals. She has collaborated with fellow faculty members and students and even included dancers, a performance artist, a visual artist, and a video artist. Charisse is a firm believer that music inspires and visualizes the connection to the other arts and literature.
Charisse’s music is inspired by South East Asia and Latin America. Her latest musical project which debuted on November 10, 2018, involved a series of art songs inspired by the poetry of Denise Levertov and Sara Teasdale. Alchemy was written for baritone and piano, and The Kiss was written for soprano and piano. These compositions started back in February 2018 and took about 8 – 10 months to finally come to fruition. This concert incorporated a team of audio engineers and a videographer who captured the performance with three cameras. Coordinating all of this with the stage crew and then post production makes it a daunting task but Charisse says it is all worth it in the end.
When asked what advice she might have for aspiring musicians or those interested in the arts she insisted that you simply follow your gut. If you are interested in something, pursue it. She knows first hand the rewards that were plentiful for her willingness to just go forth and give it a shot.
Charisse is quite happy with her academic career as it gives her the flexibility and security to teach the next generation of musicians and also have an opportunity to pursue her artform. She feels that if she was just a full-time performer, the solitude of the practice room may feel too lonely or wear her out. Being a professor provides a nice balance.
Right now Charisse is prepping for an upcoming sabbatical where she will be traveling to South East Asia and Europe. While traveling she plans on pursuing the different facets of being an artist. She will be performing her own and other compositions and is very interested in the history of the piano around Asia. The piano is originally from Europe and Charisse wants to unearth the stories about how it arrived and became popular in Asia. This is a topic that currently does not have any real supporting research about it right now. Charisse plans on documenting her travels and research on her website https://www.charissebaldoria.com. She is also a hobbyist photographer and will have several amazing pictures to share while she is on her journey. Be sure and follow along!
