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I'm a contestant for a scholarship and in order to move to the next round, I need to get the most votes in my state.

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I'd really appreciate it! Thanks so much!!!

THE MIRACLE WORKER

• Circle in the Square Theatre
  
• First Preview: Feb. 12
  
• Opening: March 3
  
• Director: Kate Whoriskey
  
• Cast: Abigail Breslin and Alison Pill
  
• A revival of William Gibson's drama centering on the deaf and blind Helen Keller and her teacher.

   

A BEHANDING IN SPOKANE

• Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre
  
• First Preview: Feb. 15
  
• Opening: March 4
  
• Director: John Crowley
  
• Cast: Christopher Walken, Zoe Kazan, Anthony Mackie and Sam Rockwell
  
• World premiere of a new American-set Martin McDonagh black comedy.

   

NEXT FALL

• Helen Hayes Theatre
  
• First Preview: Feb. 16
  
• Opening: March 11
  
• Director: Sheryl Keller
  
• Cast: Patrick Breen, Maddie Corman, Sean Dugan, Patrick Heusinger, Connie Ray and Cotter Smith
  
• Transfer of Naked Angels' Off-Broadway run of Geoffrey Nauffts' drama about a five-year relationship.

   

LOOPED

• Lyceum Theatre
  
• First Preview: Feb. 19
  
• Opening: March 14
  
• Director: Rob Ruggiero
  
• Cast: Valerie Harper, Brian Hutchison
  
• Matthew Lombardo's new comedy that finds celebrated actress Tallulah Bankhead in a sound studio to re-record (or "loop") one line of dialogue for be her last film.

   

ALL ABOUT ME

• Henry Miller's Theatre
  
• First Preview: Feb. 22
  
• Opening: March 18
  
• Director: Casey Nicholaw
  
• Cast: Barry Humphries, Michael Feinstein
  
• Christopher Durang pens the Broadway return of Australia's First Lady with cabaret's popular standards man.

   

COME FLY AWAY

• Marquis Theatre
  
• First Preview: March 1
  
• Opening: March 25
  
• Director: Twyla Tharp
  
• Choreographer: Twyla Tharp
  
• Cast: John Selya, Keith Roberts, Karine Plantadit, Holley Farmer
  
• Tharp's Frank Sinatra-inspired dance piece about four lovelorn couples featuring the vocals of Ol' Blue Eyes.

   

LEND ME A TENOR

• Music Box Theatre
  
• First Preview: March 11
  
• Opening: April 4
  
• Director: Stanley Tucci
  
• Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell
  
• Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Tony Shalhoub, Justin Bartha, Jan Maxwell, Mary Catherine Garrison, Jennifer Laura Thompson
  
• Ken Ludwig's 1930s-set comedy that centers on a world-famous star who goes missing before his debut with Cleveland's local opera.

   

THE ADDAMS FAMILY

• Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
  
• First Preview: March 8
  
• Opening: April 8
  
• Director: Jerry Zaks, Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch
  
• Cast: Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth, Carolee Carmello, Kevin Chamberlin, Jackie Hoffman, Zachary James, Terrence Mann, Adam Riegler, Wesley Taylor and Krysta Rodriguez
  
• New Andrew Lippa, Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice musical inspired by Charles Addams macabre characters.

   

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET

• Nederlander Theatre
  
• First Preview: March 13
  
• Opening: April 11
  
• Director: Eric Schaeffer
  
• Cast: Hunter Foster, Elizabeth Stanley, Eddie Clendening, Lance Guest, Levi Kreis and Rob Lyons
  
• Transfer of the Chicago musical by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux centering on Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley.

   

HUGHIE/ KRAPP'S LAST TAPE

• Theatre: TBA
  
• First Preview: April 12
  
• Opening: TBA
  
• Director: Robert Falls/ Jennifer Tarver
  
• Cast: Brian Dennehy
  
• Transfer of the Goodman Theatre's production of Eugene O'Neill and Samuel Beckett works.

   

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

• Longacre Theatre
  
• First Preview: April 6
  
• Opening: April 18
  
• Director: Terry Johnson
  
• Choreographer: Lynne Page
  
• Cast: Douglas Hodge, Kelsey Grammer
  
• Transfer of the London Menier Chocolate Factory production of Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein's musical.

   

AMERICAN IDIOT

• St. James Theatre
  
• First Preview: March 24
  
• Opening: April 20
  
• Director: Michael Mayer
  
• Choreographer: Steven Hoggett
  
• Cast: TBA
  
• New rock musical using songs from Green Day's album of the same name and latest album, "21st Century Breakdown."

   

SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM

• Studio 54
  
• First Preview: March 19
  
• Opening: April 22
  
• Director: James Lapine
  
• Cast: Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis, Euan Morton, Leslie Kritzer, Tom Wopat
  
• A new revue and intimate portrait of the famed composer.

   

PROMISES, PROMISES

• Broadway Theatre
  
• First Preview: March 28
  
• Opening: April 25
  
• Director: Rob Ashford
  
• Choreographer: Rob Ashford
  
• Cast: Kristin Chenoweth, Sean Hayes, Brooks Ashmanskas, Katie Finneran and Tony Goldwyn
  
• A revival of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David-Neil Simon musical based on "The Apartment."

   

FENCES

• Cort Theatre
  
• First Preview: April 14
  
• Opening: April 25
  
• Director: Kenny Leon
  
• Cast: Denzel Washington, Viola Davis
  
• Revival of August Wilson's drama about a former Negro League baseball player who struggles now as a garbage man.

   

ENRON

• Broadhurst Theatre
  
• First Preview: April 8
  
• Opening: April 27
  
• Director: Rupert Goold
  
• Cast: Norbert Leo Butz
  
• Transfer of London's Jerwood Theatre production of Lucy Prebble's financial scandal drama.

   

COLLECTED STORIES

• Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
  
• First Preview: April 6
  
• Opening: April 28
  
• Director: Lynne Meadow
  
• Cast: Linda Lavin, Sarah Paulson
  
• Manhattan Theatre Club's presentation of Donald Margulies' new play about two female writers.

   

LIPS TOGETHER, TEETH APART

• American Airlines Theatre
  
• First Preview: April 9
  
• Opening: April 29
  
• Director: Joe Mantello
  
• Cast: Megan Mullally, Lili Taylor, Patton Oswalt
  
• Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Terrence McNally's play set at a Fire Island beach house on the Fourth of July.

(playbill.com)

29 January 2010

7.30pm
Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall
881 Seventh Ave
New York
NY 10019
United States of America

Details:
+1 (212) 247 7800

US$38-48      Anne Manson and The American Composers Orchestra

Paquito D'Rivera, clarinet and saxophone
Robert Black, double bass
Pawel Wojtasik, video
American Composers Orchestra
Anne Manson, conductor

Roger Zare: Time Lapse (world premiere, ACO/Underwood commission)
Sebastian Currier: Next Atlantis for orchestra, electronics, and video (world premiere/ACO commission)
Paquito D'Rivera: Conversations with Cachao (NYC premiere)

Conductor Anne Manson Leads Two World Premieres with American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall

New for 2010, the Sundance Film Festival expands to audiences across the country for one special night of film and dialogue.

Across America
On Thursday, January 28, the Sundance Film Festival dispatches eight filmmakers with their films from Park City to eight cities across the country to screen and discuss direct-from-Festival films with audiences. Tickets will be available through each theatre's individual box office. Click here to learn about the eight films selected from the official Sundance Film Festival program chosen to screen in the eight cities across the country.

The films to play at the participating cities and art house theatres:

Cyrus (Jay Duplass & Mark Duplass) - Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
The Company Men (John Wells) - Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA
Daddy Longlegs (Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie) - BAM, Brooklyn, NY
Jack Goes Boating (Philip Seymour Hoffman) - Music Box Theatre, Chicago, IL
Teenage Paparazzo (Adrian Grenier) - Downtown Independent, Los Angeles, CA
The Extra Man (Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini) - The Belcourt Theatre, Nashville, TN
The Runaways (Floria Sigismondi) - Sundance Cinemas Madison, Madison, WI
Howl (Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman) - Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, San Francisco, CA
On the Mountain
Utah Festivalgoers celebrate this unique collective moment with audiences across the country. On Thursday, January 28, Park City audiences have the chance to screen the North American premiere of the socio-political documentary The Shock Doctrine from directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross and based on the book by journalist Naomi Klein. The screening will be followed by a conversation with the filmmakers, Naomi Klein, and Robert Redford.

Harbin Ice Festival provides the visitors each year a whole new world of ice and snow. The best collections of ice artworks are exhibited in the following five main places:

Harbin Ice and Snow World
Ice Lantern Garden Party
Sun Island Scenic Area
Yabuli International Ski Resort
Zhaolin Park

The Festival, established in 1985, is held annually from January 5 and lasts for over one month. Harbin is the capital city of Heilongjiang Province and this is China\'s original and greatest ice artwork festival, attracting hundreds of thousands of local people and visitors from all over the world.

The city\'s location in northeast China accounts for its arctic climate which provides abundant natural ice and snow. Subsequently, the \'Ice City\' of Harbin is recognized as the cradle of ice and snow art in China and is famous for its exquisite and artistic ice and snow sculptures. The fabulous Ice Lantern Festival was the forerunner of the current festival and is still the best loved part of the overall event in the opinion of all who come to Harbin each year.

The Derivation of the Ice Lantern
The first Ice lanterns were a winter-time tradition in northeast China. During the Qing Dynasty（1644 - 1911), the local peasants and fishermen often made and used ice lanterns as jack-lights during the winter months. At that time these were made simply by pouring water into a bucket that was then put out in the open to freeze. It was then gently warmed before the water froze completely so that the bucket-shaped ice could be pulled out. A hole was chiseled in the top and the water remaining inside poured out creating a hollow vessel. A candle was then placed inside resulting in a windproof lantern that gained great popularity in the region around Harbin.

From then on, people made ice lanterns and put them outside their houses or gave them to children to play with during some of the traditional festivals. Thus the ice lantern began its long history of development. With novel changes and immense advancement in techniques, today we can marvel at the various delicate and artistic ice lanterns on display.

Today\'s Ice Lantern

Nowadays, ice lantern in broad sense refers to a series of plastic arts using ice and snow as raw material combining ice artworks with colored lights and splendid music. The specific patterns of ice lantern include ice and snow sculptures, ice flowers, ice architectures and so on.

The Sun Island Park is the site of the Snow Sculpture Exposition displaying a wonderful snow world. It has the world\'s largest indoor ice and snow art museum and it opens to the public from November every year.

Harbin Ice and Snow World came into being in 1999 and is one of the world\'s largest ice architecture parks. The inspiration for the ice and snow sculptures there usually is derived from traditional Chinese fairy tales or world famous architectures such as the Great Wall, the Egyptian Pyramids, etc.

Zhaolin Park is a \'must see\' during the Harbin Ice Festival because it has a traditional program that shows the most excellent ice lanterns. With water, lights and the natural ice from the Songhua River running through Harbin as the material, the ice lanterns are made by freezing water, piling up ice or snow, then carving, enchasing, decorating, etc. The ice lantern park touring activities have been held here annually since 1963 and is said to be one of the most wonderful 35 tourist attractions in China. There are numerous pieces of ice artworks in the park arranged in groups according to different themes depicting Chinese classic masterworks, European folktales and customs and so on. A great variety of objects such as buildings, gardens, flowers, waterfalls, European-styled churches, lions, tigers, dragons are carved from ice. In the daytime, the ice sculptures are magnificent and verisimilitude. Moreover, with the interspersion of the sparkling colored lights embedded in the sculptures at night, the park becomes a glorious and amazing ice world.

Today, Harbin Ice Festival is not only an exposition of ice and snow art, but also an annual cultural event for international exchange. Every year, there are many ice sculpture experts, artists and fans from America, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Russia, China, etc. gathering in Harbin to participate ice sculpting competitions and to communicate with each other in the ice and snow world. Also, Harbin ice lanterns have been exhibited in most of China\'s main cities as well as in many countries in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa and Oceania. For more than 40 years, Harbin\'s natural resource of ice and snow has been fully explored to provide joy and fun for visitors to the city. Now during the festival, many sporting competitions are also popular including ice-skating, sledding and so on. Weddings, parties and other entertainments are now very much a feature of this ice world, adding their own contribution to the celebrations of this great festival of art, culture, sports and tourism.

 (travelchinaguide.com)

January 23-31, 2010

    *

      The 2010 ZORA! Festival Legacy Awards Celebration, Saturday, January 30, 2010, at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality.

      Zora Neale Hurston is one of most significant authors of African-American culture in the world, and many of her works celebrate her hometown of Eatonville, right here in Central Florida!

      The ZORA! Festival Legacy Awards Celebration will commemorate 50 years of Zora Neale Hurston's passing and will pay tribute to contemporary trailblazers: Cathy Hughes, George Fraser, and Susan Taylor.

      Sponsorships for the 2010 ZORA! Festival Legacy Awards Celebration will contribute to the Zora Neale Hurston Youth Endowment, which helps fund arts education and cultural heritage programs for our youth throughout the year.

      
    *
      Kem Headlines ZORA! Festival 2010

      Kem is a noted R&B/soul singer, songwriter and producer who rose to fame in 2002, with hits such as Love Calls; I Can't Stop Loving You and Find Your Way (Back in My Life). His musical talent has been solicited by many artists and filmmakers.

      He wrote and performed Tonight, which is included on the soundtrack for Tyler Perry's film, "Madea's Family Reunion." Additionally, Kem's remake of Nat King Cole's Fascination was featured in the film, "Take the Lead" starring Antonio Banderas.

      
    *
      The Original, Award-Winning, Nationally and Internationally Recognized Festival Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston

      Taking place the last week of January each year in Eatonville and throughout Orange County, Florida, this multi-day, multi-disciplinary event celebrates the life and work of 20th century writer, folklorist and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston; her hometown, Eatonville, the nation's oldest incorporated African American municipality and the cultural contributions people of African ancestry have made to the United States and the world. Attracting thousands of locals and tourists, ZORA! Festival presents an impressive roster of arts, humanities and cultural programming. The event features museum exhibitions, public talks, panel discussions, workshops and concerts.

Christmas Eve, December 24, is the night before Christmas Day, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a culturally significant celebration for most of Christianity; however, it is also celebrated by secular people and is a national holiday in many countries of the world.

Christmas Day is celebrated as a major festival and public holiday in most countries of the world, even in many whose populations are not majority Christian. In some non-Christian countries, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration; in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. Major exceptions, where Christmas is not a formal public holiday, include China, (excepting Hong Kong and Macao), Japan, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Thailand, Nepal, Iran, Turkey and North Korea.

While most countries celebrate Christmas on December 25 each year, some eastern national churches, including those of Russia, Georgia, Egypt, Armenia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Serbia celebrate on January 7. This is because of their use of the traditional Julian Calendar, under which December 25 falls on January 7 as measured by the standard Gregorian Calendar.

Around the world, Christmas celebrations can vary markedly in form, reflecting differing cultural and national traditions. Countries such as Japan and Korea, where Christmas is popular despite there being only a small number of Christians, have adopted many of the secular aspects of Christmas, such as gift-giving, decorations and Christmas trees.

In Christianity, Christmas is the festival celebrating the Nativity of Jesus, the Christian belief that the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament's Messianic prophecies was born to the Virgin Mary. The story of Christmas is based on the biblical accounts given in the Gospel of Matthew, namely Matthew 1:18-Matthew 2:12 and the Gospel of Luke, specifically Luke 1:26-Luke 2:40. According to these accounts, Jesus was born to Mary, assisted by her husband Joseph, in the city of Bethlehem. According to popular tradition, the birth took place in a stable, surrounded by farm animals, though neither the stable nor the animals are specifically mentioned in the Biblical accounts. However, a manger is mentioned in Luke 2:7, where it states, "She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Early iconographic representations of the nativity placed the animals and manger within a cave (located, according to tradition, under the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem). Shepherds from the fields surrounding Bethlehem were told of the birth by an angel, and were the first to see the child.

Many Christians believe that the birth of Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies from the Old Testament.[15] The Gospel of Matthew also describes a visit by several Magi, or astrologers, who bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant. The visitors were said to be following a mysterious star, commonly known as the Star of Bethlehem, believing it to announce the birth of a king of the Jews. The commemoration of this visit, the Feast of Epiphany celebrated on January 6, is the formal end of the Christmas season in some churches.

Christians celebrate Christmas in many ways. In addition to this day being one of the most important and popular for the attendance of church services, there are numerous other devotions and popular traditions. Prior to Christmas Day, the Eastern Orthodox Church practises the Nativity Fast in anticipation of the birth of Jesus, while much of Western Christianity celebrates Advent. The final preparations for Christmas are made on Christmas Eve.

Over the Christmas period, people decorate their homes and exchange gifts. In some Christian denominations, children perform plays re-telling the events of the Nativity, or sing carols that reference the event. Some Christians also display a small re-creation of the Nativity, known as a Nativity scene or crib, in their homes, using figurines to portray the key characters of the event. Live Nativity scenes and tableaux vivants are also performed, using actors and animals to portray the event with more realism.

A long artistic tradition has grown of producing painted depictions of the nativity in art. Nativity scenes are traditionally set in a barn or stable and include Mary, Joseph, the child Jesus, angels, shepherds and the Three Wise Men: Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar, who are said to have followed a star, known as the Star of Bethlehem, and arrived after his birth.

(wikipedia.org)

As early as 2,500 years ago, about the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), China had determined the point of Winter Solstice by observing movements of the sun with a sundial. It is the earliest of the 24 seasonal division points. The time will be each December 21 or 22 according to the Gregorian calendar.

The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest daytime and longest nighttime. After the Winter Solstice, days will become longer and longer. As ancient Chinese thought, the yang, or muscular, positive things will become stronger and stronger after this day, so it should be celebrated.

The Winter Solstice became a festival during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) and thrived in the Tang and Song dynasties (618-1279). The Han people regarded Winter Solstice as a "Winter Festival", so officials would organize celebrating activities. On this day, both officials and common people would have a rest. The army was stationed in, frontier fortresses closed and business and traveling stopped. Relatives and friends presented to each other delicious food. In the Tang and Song dynasties, the Winter Solstice was a day to offer scarifies to Heaven and ancestors. Emperors would go to suburbs to worship the Heaven; while common people offered sacrifices to their deceased parents or other relatives. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) even had the record that "Winter Solstice is as formal as the Spring Festival," showing the great importance attached to this day.

In some parts of Northern China, people eat dumpling soup on this day; while residents of some other places eat dumplings, saying doing so will keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. But in parts of South China, the whole family will get together to have a meal made of red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evil things. In other places, people also eat tangyuan, a kind of stuffed small dumpling ball made of glutinous rice flour. The Winter Solstice rice dumplings could be used as sacrifices to ancestors, or gifts for friends and relatives. The Taiwan people even keep the custom of offering nine-layer cakes to their ancestors. They make cakes in the shape of chicken, duck, tortoise, pig, cow or sheep with glutinous rice flour and steam them on different layers of a pot. These animals all signify auspiciousness in Chinese tradition. People of the same surname or family clan gather at their ancestral temples to worship their ancestors in age order. After the sacrificial ceremony, there is always a grand banquet. 

When

12, 2009 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Where

Beijing BISS International School (map)
No 17 An Zhen Xi Li Chaoyang District
Beijing, 11 100029
China

What

Welcome soccer fans join this game.

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.

Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.

By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.

The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.

These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.

However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.

(history.navy.mil)