Night & Day Events

22 Thursday
High school drama teacher Shelly Blay wanted to make sure her students got more than just adoration from their classmates when starring in school plays, so she created Oak Park High School’s Theatre for a Cause, which donates proceeds of its productions to worthy causes in the area. This year’s beneficiary is Heart of America Stand Down — an organization that provides food, clothing, drug and alcohol counseling and other social and medical services for veterans and their families. This year’s show is A Piece of My Heart, which Blay describes as “a play about six women in Vietnam and the experiences that shaped their lives.” She explains that “in addition to raising student and community awareness of the historical relevance of Vietnam, we will share with our students and patrons the lasting impact that event is still having on our own community.” The play runs through Saturday at Oak Park’s Little Theater at 825 N.E. 79th Terrace. Tickets are $5 each. For more information, call 816-413-5300.

23 Fiday
While some Charlie Parker fans and a few tourists pay tribute to the icon by standing in front of the statue erected in his image in the 18th and Vine district, some, like drummer Roy Haynes, prefer to pay homage by keeping Bird’s music chirping. In a kickoff event for a two-week Charlie Parker Symposium, the Roy Haynes Trio gives an 8 p.m. concert at the Gem Theater, 1616 E. 18th Street, performing a number of Parker’s well-known tunes. Haynes has more than fifty years of experience playing drums for jazz, and he has performed with not only Charlie Parker himself but also Lester Young, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and others. For more information on this or other Charlie Parker Symposium events, call 816-474-8463.

24 Saturday
With Regenerations, newEar Contemporary Chamber proposes to find out whether one generation’s musical thread can be traced to another generation. Audience members will hear the music of French composer Edgar Varese, then original compositions by his student, Chou Wen-chung, and two of his students, Chen Yi and Zhou Long. The mutation is evident — when he wrote tonight’s selection, Octandre, in 1923 France, Varese hardly could have known that two generations later his inspirational geneology would spawn Zhou Long’s Spirit of Chimes, which interprets ancient Chinese bells, chimestones and bonewhistles for a contemporary ensemble of violin, cello and piano. The show starts at 8 p.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at 13th and Holmes, with an admission fee of $14 at the door ($8 for students with ID). Advance tickets cost $11. For more information, call 816-235-2700.

25 Sunday
Given the strong emotional response generated by the recent film Dancer in the Dark, starring Icelandic pop singer Björk, director Lars von Trier’s earlier films might be worth a second run. In 1996’s Breaking the Waves, for instance, Emily Watson plays pious Bess, who shares spiritually sensual moments with her husband until he is paralyzed in an accident. He wants her to continue having affairs with other men and for her to tell him about them, which she does in an attempt to save him. Strangely, today’s screening of this lascivious drama is sponsored by Westport Presbyterian Church’s Westport Film Chat Room. Although most viewers would find it difficult to consider Breaking the Waves suitable material for churchgoers, coordinators insist that the film raises such questions as “Can we believe in miracles?” and “What is goodness?” And here we were thinking that the movie posed questions about vicarious sexual experience. Devotees of experimental film and Christian morality alike can enjoy a progressive Sunday in the pews at 6:30 p.m. at 201 Westport Road. For more information, call 816-931-1032.

26 Monday
This is the second day in a five-day run of Traci Tullius‘ Never Knew What Hit Her, a video installation project at the University of Kansas Art and Design Gallery, 1467 Jayhawk Boulevard in Lawrence. The gallery will continuously change, with the only constant being the stadium bleachers set up to create an auditorium. Tullius’ focus is repetition; she states that “documenting seemingly meaningless activities in video and then repeating those images infinitely transcends their monotony.” This project is an attempt to reflect the compulsiveness of daily rituals. With images of futile activities that people take for granted (such as making a bed in the morning only to unmake it again that night) she juxtaposes futile activities that would generally be considered ridiculous (such as repeated attempts to sew one’s fingers together). In the process, she creates what she calls a “visual mantra,” one that might prove helpful to adolescents trying to convince parental figures of the futility of bedmaking. For more information, call 785-864-4401.

27 Tuesday
It turns out that Bachelor Pad, the title originally intended for the major art exhibition now known as A House Is Not a Home, would be less than appropriate given the venue that was finally selected — the retirement community called Village Shalom, 5500 W. 123rd Street in Overland Park. Curator James Brinsfield‘s idea — to reflect upon the spaces in which we live in the year 2001 — has been faithfully carried out by participating artists. Included are works by Tammi Kennedy, who wraps chairs in clear tape to map their forms, creating something akin to three-dimensional photocopies. But anyone wishing to recline should resist the urge to sit in one of Kennedy’s chairs — they don’t actually hold weight. Meanwhile, the cutting edge midtown design firm Museo has included furniture, such as storage units that also can be stacked and used as end tables. For more information, call the Kansas City Jewish Museum, 913-312-2685.

28 Wednesday
On display at Planet Café, 3535 Broadway, are seventeen-year-old Tami Browning‘s works — paintings and drawings of wide-eyed girls, created in the style of Japanese animation characters. Precise and often colorful, these images aren’t actually imported, but the women they depict don’t come across as being domestic, either. “Gothic Girl,” “Devil Girl With Wings” and “Dreadlock Fighter Girl” hold their own on Planet Café’s walls. For more information, call 816-931-3634.