Wine of the Times
Cheers to Winterthur. On April 28 it opens “Uncorked! Wine, Objects & Tradition,” a celebration of 300 objects and imagery created in response to our love of wine. “Uncorked!” shows how wine was marketed and consumed in America and Britain from the 1600s through the 1800s. See unique wine bottles, decanters and cellarettes, lead figures of Bacchus, “Champagne Charlie” song sheets, advertisements and more. Special events include wine dinners, cellar tours, local winery tastings, and a lunchtime lecture series by wine historians, collectors and curators of drinking vessels. There’s something for every wine enthusiast. The exhibition will be on view through January 6. winterthur.org/uncorked.
Heavenly Music
We’ve been waiting for this since the season was announced last summer: The Delaware Symphony Orchestra presents “The Planets.” Listen to music by Holst while marveling at amazing videos of space by NASA. You’ve never taken a journey like this. See it April 28-29 at The Grand Opera House. Before the performance, hear the Wilmington Children’s Course perform songs from favorite movies. This is family entertainment at its best. ticketsatthegrand.org
It can’t get more Mozartian than this—when The Kennett Symphony presents Leopold’s Violin: A Magical Evening of Mozart at Longwood Gardens on April 27, guest violinist Christopher Collins Lee will play his 1680 Cremonese violin, which once belonged to Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang’s father. Very, very cool. Under the direction of Maestra Mary Woodmansee Green, the Kennett Symphony offers a delightful concert of Mozart’s best-loved melodies, opening with Symphony No. 29. Don’t miss this unique opportunity. (610) 444-6363, Kennettsymphony.org
Kid Stuff
Clear Space Children’s Theatre makes its public premiere with “I’ve Got a Friend In You” April 28-29. Directed by Clear Space steady Dana Peragallo, the production features 13 of Clear Space’s best young performers. “Our faculty was met with a remarkably talented group of students who, after years of honing their skills in Broadway Bound, wanted to explore their talents in a new capacity, yet they were still too young to participate in the adult acting classes,” says Peragallo. “We then developed a script that addressed their needs to grow as performers.” The show includes numbers such as “Consider Yourself” from “Oliver!” “You’re the Top” and “Friendship” from “Anything Goes,” and more, as well as monologues and scenes from plays like “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” See it at the Clear Space Theatre in Rehoboth. 227-2270, ClearSpaceTheatre.org
Get a sneak preview of Rehoboth Summer Children’s Theatre season on April 28, when the principals—two actors—perform the classic “Snow White.” Yes, Steve Seyfried and Stephanie King play Snow White, the evil queen, all seven dwarves, and an array of woodland animals. Before the show children 4-12 can join Steve and Stephanie in a dramatics workshop. It all happens at Epworth United Methodist Church. The RSCT season begins June 27. This year, see “Cinderella,” “Puss in Boots” and “The Jungle Book.” See the complete schedule online. 227-6766, rehobothchildrenstheatre.org
The Shows Go On
Who can resist this? In “The Skin of Our Teeth,” the inventor of the wheel, his family and his saucy maid face calamity after calamity—war, flood, famine, climate change and economic collapse—yet somehow manage to pull through. Yes, there is hope. This uproarious Pulitzer winner even offers wooly mammoth. Need we say more? Catch the UD’s Resident Ensemble Players production at Roselle Center for the Arts through July 5. 831-2204, rep.udel.edu
Don’t miss the opportunity to find out what hat-titude is. Delaware Theatre Company presents the musical “Crowns” through April 29. As a young woman who moves to the South quickly learns, there’s a hat for every occasion, and everyone has a unique meaning. Hear Mother Shaw and her Hat Queens relate the significance of everything from turbans to pill boxes in this heart-warming charmer. It will put your head in a good place. 594-1100, delawaretheatre.org
Get the kids to Delaware Children’s Theatre in Wilmington for “Ciinderella,” which plays Saturdays and Sundays through May 6. This is a musical version of the fairy tale that will delight everyone. 655-1014, dechildrenstheatre.org
You roared at the movie with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Now you can see “The Wedding Singer” on stage in a musical at The New Candlelight Theatre. As the good people there say, party like it’s 1985. We promise lots of laughs. See it through May 20. 475-2313, nctstage.org
Still Slammed with Poetry
National Poetry Month is drawing to a close, and so are some special local events. “As the Poet Paints: E. Jean Lanyon” at the Biggs Museum in Dover features the literary and visual artworks of Lanyon, who was Delaware’s poet laureate from 1979 through 2001. “As a fine artist I paint what I cannot write, and I write what I cannot paint,” Lanyon has said. “As the Poet Paints: E. Jean Lanyon” closes April 29. (674-2111, biggsmuseum.org) Also closing April 29, “Object Poetry” shows the watercolor paintings of Susan S. Johnston at Dover Art League. The show will partner with local writers for a special evening April 25, when the writers will read works inspired by the paintings. 674-0402, doverartleague.org
Most Artful
See the best of Not Yet Famous Artists through April 27 at New Wilmington Art Association’s gallery space at 605 N. Market St. in Wilmington. This is a juried exhibition of University of Delaware art department members. You need to make an appointment for this one, so you know it’s good. 312-5493, new.wilmington.art@gmail.com
“American Masters Art of the 19th and 20th centuries” at Sommerville Manning Gallery in Greenville shows works by contemporaries of the Wyeth family. You’ll see works by N.C., American Impressionists Childe Hassam, Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twatchtman, Ashcan School artists Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn and William Glackens, and masters John Singer Sargent and Thomas Anschutz. There’s more. See it through June 2. 652-0271, somervillemanning.com
Those interested in publishing and illustration may want to visit the Brandywine River Museum soon to see “Scribner’s Magazine: The Early Years in Illustration” to learn about the importance of illustrated magazines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Of the important artists Scribner’s hired, you’ll notice Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle, Frank Schoonover and N.C. Wyeth as notables, men who helped make the magazine one of the most popular in its day. Learn more about “golden age of illustration” through May 2. (610) 388-2700, brandywinemusuem.org. 645-9095, rehobothfilm.com
Party for Art
This sounds super cool—”Midnight in Wilmington: A 1920s Art Salon” at the DCCA on April 28. Support the center’s educational programs by partying in your Prohibition-era best to period music and art. Dress as a flapper or a swell, or channel your inner writer (Fitzgerald), dancer (Josephine Baker), painter (Dali) or jazzman. Dance to music by the e. shawn qaissaunee quartet and The Bootleg Duo. Take Charleston lessons from instructors from BlueBallRoom. Eat, drink and be merry. 656-6466, thedcca.org
