ELM SHAKESPEARE PRESENTS "WOMEN OF WILL" AT SCSU MAY 16-19

Have you ever lost sleep pondering the fate of The Bard’s female characters? If so, you have a treat in store for you as Elm Shakespeare has a new and novel show designed with you in mind. Tonight at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. SCSU’s Blackbox Theatre, 501 Crescent Street, New Haven will be alive with Tina Packer’s unique production of “Women of Will,” an intimate look at the females who populate Shakespeare’s comedies and tragedies with humor, passion, poignancy and pain.

Elm Shakespeare’s Artistic Director Rebecca Goodheart will tred the boards for her debut acting experience, conjuring up the immortal themes of “love, loss, freedom, control, violence and power” that mark these women’s fates. Goodheart will perform with Tina Packer and actor Nigel Gore to create figures like the tragic Ophelia who drowns in her own sorrow, the plucky Beatrice who expands her wit to her own benefit, the loyal daughter Cordelia who cannot please her father, the faithful Desdemona who is falsely accused of infidelity, the adventurous Rosalind and Celia who romp through the Forest of Arden,the innocent young love of Juliet who meets a tragic end, and the list of potential players marches on.

For tickets ($40, tonight $95 reception with post show wine and appetizers), go to eventbrite.com/e/tina-packers-women-of-will-tickets-872980356747.

Enter your own personal Forest of Arden and romp merrily along with Shakespeare’s female creations, shedding a tear or three along the way, and gain a greater understanding of the man and his contributions to our literary world.

NEW HAVEN THEATER COMPANY UTTERING A MOUTHFUL OF WORDS IN "WEBSTER'S BITCH"

Being confined in an office five days a week with co-workers can contribute to some tricky situations, a little jealousy, a few conflicts with the copy machine or the coffee pot, and even a missing lunch or three. The words we exchange can have meanings that ignite tempers, provoke controversy, soothe hurt feelings, create lasting friendships, alienate and enflame, all manner of reactions.

What would we do without words? Thanks to Noah Webster, in the early 19th century, we have his dictionary that honored American English spelling in literature and the arts and sciences. Webster did not invent the entries but rather popularized them. He went on to devote two decades to expanding the inclusions to 70,000 words. His editions originally cost $20, 2500 copies were printed and, in today’s money, would cost $647.73.

How weighty would your responsibilities be if you were a lexicographer working today to be accurate and timely with your definitions? The reality is that words can change in meaning with the ways the world works at the moment. The dictionary is the source of most words and the stepping stone for Jacqueline Bircher's intriguing play “Webster's Bitch” making its humorous and thought provoking production at New Haven Theater Company until Saturday, May 18.

Enter the office of Webster’s Dictionary where every day the employees grapple with definitions and the citations needed to justify any updates or changes. These are devotees who love language and what they do. What happens, however, when their illustrious leader is overheard and videoed saying a word both inappropriate and derogatory and the media world blasts it out with explosive speed and reaction? The normally quiet office is suddenly on fire and what do Gwen (Abby Klein) and Nick (Gavin Whelan) have to do to put out the conflagration? Not a fire extinguisher? Not a fireman? Can they use calming words to control the inferno? Ralph Buonocore’s Frank has, in his terms, accidentally called his second-in-command Joyce “a bitch” and further inflamed the situation by terming her “my bitch” and the social media world, in the "Me Too” accusatorial atmosphere, wants his head.

Lillian Garcia’s Joyce has mixed reactions to the slur and is calculating how to turn this unexpected event to her advantage. She never especially cared for Frank and she sees it as a means for her personal advancement. Gwen and Nick are appalled and want to fix the problem as quickly, quietly and smoothly as possible. Add to the mix is the pop up personality of Gwen’s sister, a madly humorous Ellie, played by Lisa DeAngelis, who sees the delicious satire of the situation and makes quick use of its bizarreness. Margaret Mann and John Watson co-direct this fun foray into language correctness and inappropriateness with skill.

For waiting list tickets (it’s sold out at the moment), leave your request at nhtcboxoffice@gmail.com. Performances are Thursday at 7:30 p.m., and Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at EBM Vintage, 839 Chapel Street, New Haven, a lovely consignment shop that houses the theater in the back.

Watch your p’s and q’s as the walls and the ears of the world are listening and ready to pounce at the slightest hint of incorrectness you may mistakenly utter.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE INVITES YOU TO ENTER "THE FAR COUNTRY" UNTIL MAY 18

For hundreds of years, individuals and families have abandoned all they knew, leaving behind history and heritage, to achieve a new life, a better life, in a yet unknown place. Their hopes and dreams are tied up in their prospects and possibilities, that this adventure into the uncertain and exotic will gain them freedom and a realized dream. Risking everything, even the chance of death, they travel into a future that promises much but does not possess guarantees.

The Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven is inviting you on this perilous journey in Lloyd Suh’s “The Far Country” until Saturday, May 18. From the rural farmlands of Taishan, China to the not always welcoming Angel Island Detention Center, you will meet the hopeful immigrants eager to reach the golden shores of San Francisco. How successful will they be in abandoning their past for a bright future in an unchartered land?

Seeking admittance in America for the Chinese is much like pleading for parole from a prison sentence: you have to beg your captors to free you from your present difficult situation to gain a new status and, ultimately, freedom. Kim Zhou’s set suggests a bleak and unforgiving series of rooms where you hold your breath and pray you have the right documents to show and the correct answers to their interminable questions. Come meet Hao Feng’s hopeful Moon Gyet who has memorized an entire background as a “paper son” to prove he has the right to enter the United States, a false set of facts that he is born of American parents or a child of American citizens. Years before, David Shih’s Gee has endured the same endless questions, after paying his own fees for the privilege, and is now a successful laundry owner who needs an able bodied man to help him.He has focused his sights on Moon Gyet.

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned Chinese workers from entering the U.S. so migrants were forced to lie, to answer senseless questions, to create false identities. We are witness to Moon Gyet’s emotional leaving of his mother Low, Tina Chilip, and the intense interrogation he receives at Angel Island Detention Center from Haskell King, inspector, and Joe Osheroff, the interpreter. Recently hundreds of poems in Chinese have been discovered at Angel Island that bear testimony to the indignities suffered there.

Again years later Moon Gyet returns to his Chinese roots to reunite with his mother in a tender scene but also to purchase for himself a wife, just as he had been “purchased” so long ago. He seals his fate with Joyce Meimei Zheng’s Yuen, an outspoken young woman who knows what she is getting into and the rules of the game. Her refreshing promise of hope reveals how successful this match made of necessity will be, under the lyrical direction of Ralph B. Pena, with costumes by Kiyoshi Shaw, lighting by Yichen Zhou, sound design and original music by Joe Krempetz and Xi (Zoey) Lin and projection designer Hana S. Kim. This production is poignant, painful and powerful, thanks to its accomplished cast.

For tickets ($15-65), call the Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven at 203-432-1234 or online at yalerep. org. Performances are Monday to Friday at 8 p.m., and Satuday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Let this forgotten stage of history be a reminder of the price, not just in dollars, what many are willing to pay and eager to pay for the gift of being free.

COME GREET MEET LOAF TRIBUTE BAND AT BRIDGEPORT'S DOWNTOWN CABARET MAY 25

A cold meat loaf sandwich on a buttered hard roll is one of this writer’s favorite sandwiches. To eat it at Bridgeport’s Downtown Cabaret while viewing and listening to one of the best Meet Loaf Tribute Bands would definitely be heavenly. Your opportunity to join me is available on Saturday, May 25 at both 4 p.m. and 8 p.m at 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport at cabaret tables, whether you bring meat loaf sandwiches, fried chicken, pizza or any other goodies to share. Just the great song “I’d Do Anything for Love” is worth the price of admission, but this concert is so much more. And you’d better believe it! This great group will take you to places you’ve never known. Come witness the Ultimate Meet Loaf Tribute Band as they perform “Anything for BIG LOVE Tour 2024, as the 1st Place Winner of the South Florida Fair Classic Rod Tribute Band Competition.

The immortal voice of Meat Loaf lives on in this tribute band who are so good you will literally be blown away by their “stunning sing- a- long concert" you won’t want to miss. Starting with Jim Steinman’s 1977 debut album "Bat Out of Hell” selling 43 million copies, making platinum 14 times, a trilogy topping over a million recordings in all. Michael Lee Aday, better known as Meat Loaf, felt he was an actor before being a singer. His appearance in the 1975 cult classic “The Rocky Horror Show,” with tunes like “Hot Patootie” and “Time Warp” were considered flawless. This Meet Loaf band pays homage to both Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf, exploring their genius in such immortal melodies as "It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” “Total Eclipse of the Sun,” ”Holding Out for a Hero.” “Dead Ringer for Love,” and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All.”

This look and sound alike group will send you up to the moon and back and keep the music and words of Meat Loaf resounding. Come glory in the essence of Benny Israel Resonance and Ariel Eva Resonance lead singers, Lee Kozma and Alberto Pizarro on guitars, David Carrey bassist, Dennis “Bach" Blischak keyboardist/vocalist, Gregory Sherman on drums and Cecilia Royl, vocals.

For tickets ($66.80), call the Downtown Cabaret, 263 Golden Hill Street, Bridgeport at 203-578-1636 or online at tickets@mycabaret.org. Performances are Saturday, May 25 at 4 p.m. snd 8 p.m.. Don’t forget to bring goodies and snacks to share at your cabaret table.

Meat Loaf had a colorful and complicated career, who sang opera and rock, and who credited a head accident in high school for his great singing vocal range. Come celebrate his life and his music in “Meet Loaf: The Ultimate Tribute."

ELI WHITNEY MUSEUM SLATES LEONARDO CHALLENGE MAY 16 FUNDRAISER

Close your eyes. Darkness pervades and limits perception. Now slowly open your eyes. You will easily be amazed by the plethora of impressions you encounter, the swirl of colors, the magnificence of nature, the reflection of life brimming with excitement. Whether you are outdoors observing the sunny smiles of daffodils, the vibrant budding of new life on cherry blossom trees, the wispy white transparency of clouds or indoors observing a bookcase crowded with volumes of adventure, your cat curled in a sun warmed patch under a window or a favorite vase brimming with a kaleidoscope of rainbow hues, you will be suitably amazed by the world you see.

For the grand inventor, painter, scientist, mathematician and all around Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, light was a challenging property he studied in the sun and the planets, artwork, snow on the mountains, simple shadows on windows and trees, with the human eye examining light in all its wondrous complexities.

For the 28th year the Eli Whitney Museum is holding its amazing Leonardo Challenge on Thursday, May 16th from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at its venue at 915 Whitney Avenue, in Hamden. Each year an object is chosen as the fundraiser’s theme, a deck of cards, a mirror, an ice cream spoon and artists across the country are challenged to create a piece that exhibits that vision, be it a painting, a game, a piece of jewelry, an article of clothing...you get the idea.

This year’s theme is LIGHT and it is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s canon of creations. The evening will include an exciting art auction, live music and a feast of food and drink provided by the Big Green Truck Pizza, Claire’s Corner Copia, Donut Crazy, East Rock Bread, The Soup Girls, Sanctuary Kitchen, J Cakes, Marjolaine, Black Hog Brewing Co. and The Wine Thief. Music will be provided by Cliff Schloss, a multi-instrumentalist on guitar, bass, drums, tuba, steel pans and vocals.

Proceeds from this unique and special fundraiser will benefit the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop for scholarships year-round for students to attend and learn.

According to Ryan Paxton, the executive director, “ I am very excited about this year's Leonardo Challenge. We already have many brilliant entries! 3 images are attached below. #12 is an entry from Centerbrook Architects Principal, Mark Simon in collaboration with Industrial Designer/Maker Patrick McCauley titled Seeing is Believing. #5 is a work titled Coup de Soleil (Sunburn) by New Haven Artist Jeff Ostergren. This work interestingly incorporates pharmaceuticals in the pigments. (Pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical-infused ink, pigment, hand sanitizer, and acrylic on Ablify promotional notepaper. #4 is a watercolor by Rita Kelly titled Edge of Woods. I especially like the darkness in the wooded area to the right. I imagine walking to the shaded area to cool off on a hot summer day."

For tickets ($85 and 5 tiers of sponsorship up to $5000), call the Eli Whitney Museum at 203-777-1833 or online at eliwhitney.org/exhibitions/leonardo-light.

Come support a wonderful cause and have a grand evening of celebration of creativity, with a banquet of great edibles, sparkling potables, an auction of artist’s entries and live music. Who could ask for anything more!