Celebrate Fringe, the Cornell, women
Here’s the latest from my blog, Orlando Sentinel.com/artistictype.
Fringe time
Get a jump on the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival at the local preview shows Monday.
The Fringe has grown to include more than 100 shows, which begin nearly two weeks of performances on May 16. The previews provide a chance to see two-minute snippets of 48 local productions to help you make your theatergoing schedule. There are two previews, 24 performances in each. The first, at 7 p.m., is suitable for all ages. The second, at 9, is for theatergoers 18 and older.
Eric Pinder hosts the allages preview; Rob Ward the mature-audience event. Tickets are $15 each — with a discount if you buy tickets to both. The Fringe previews take place at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, 812 E. Rollins St., Orlando. Go to orlandofringe.org.
Also: If you’re looking to save on Fringe tickets, a 10-pack deal is available at orlandofringe.org. The cost to pre-purchase 10 tickets is $100 — which can save money, as many shows are $11 or $12. After you buy the tickets, you choose which shows you want to see. Only a limited number of 10-packs is available; a similar deal for 25 tickets already has sold out.
Cornell kudos
Congratulations to the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, which has once again received accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums — the highest national recognition for the industry. Only 3 percent of the nation’s 33,000 museums have the designation. Other local accredited institutions are the Orange County Regional History Center, the Orlando Science Center and the Orlando Museum of Art.
“Our museum staff and the Rollins College community are proud of our museum and this achievement,” said director Ena Heller. The museum first was accredited in 1981.
Currently on view at the Cornell is “Towards Impressionism,” a traveling exhibit on the development of 19th-century French landscape painting. The Cornell is one of only two museums in the country hosting the exhibition, from the Musée des Beaux Arts in Reims, France.
‘Mozart’s Muses’
Opera del Sol’s next event, at The Abbey in downtown Orlando, will celebrate women — including those who inspired some of Mozart’s greatest hits. “Mozart’s Muses: An Evening of Opera & Burlesque” is co-presented with Face of a Feminist, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering girls and women.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. April 27 for a happy hour with Marie Antoinette. Dessert — “Let them eat cake!” — will be provided by Se7enbites. Music and entertainment begin at 7:30. Tickets are $35 and available at operadelsol.ticketleap.com. The Abbey is at 100 S. Eola Drive.