Year in Review: Arts
Pictured: The Marvelous Wonderettes/
Mammoth’s arts community continues to prosper. Although we’re not sure that tequila qualifies as art, but … we didn’t know where else to mention the inaugural Mammoth Margarita Festival.
JANUARY:
Students from four Mono County high schools competed in the 2nd Annual Mono County Finals in the national Poetry Out Loud competition. Ashley Garrison represented Mono County in the state finals.
FEBRUARY:
During a winter when Mammoth needed a laugh the most, director Shira Dubrovner came through, staging Mammoth Lakes Repertory Theatre’s production of the opera-skewering comedy “Lend Me A Tenor.”
MARCH:
Tahoe Adventure Film Festival promoter Todd Offenbacher brought the festival back to Mammoth Lakes’ Edison Theatre for its second year.
In Bishop, Playhouse 395’s spring musical declared, “Hello, Dolly!” The expansive production featured 23 performers on wireless mics, and a 22-piece orchestra.
JUNE:
Mammoth Lakes Music Festival’s 12th consecutive season, presented by Chamber Music Unbound, brought in 16 international guest artists for a summer-time revelry in great chamber music.
JULY:
Mammoth Food & Wine Experience, the second annual fundraising event benefiting the Mammoth Lakes Foundation and Mammoth Schools NOW Foundation, sold out both days of the two-day event’s festivities.
Lesley Bruns directed this summer’s Shakespeare in the Woods presentation of Sierra Classic Theatre’s “The Tempest” This version was given a Caribbean-Calypso treatment.
Mono Council for the Arts staged the 25th Annual Kids Fishing Festival, in collaboration with the Eastern Sierra Fishing Guides Association, at the Snowcreek Ponds.
The Hayden Cabin/Mammoth Museum celebrated a historic century of tourism in the Lakes Basin.
AUGUST:
The Eastern Sierra Symphony orchestra formally changed its name to the Sierra Summer Festival Orchestra, and its long-time conductor, Bogidar Avramov, stepped down. Veteran musician and music teacher Aimee Kreston took over the reigns as SSFO’s Director.
Joe Louis Walker was one of the acts that helped Mammoth Brewing Company’s Bluesapalooza notch another hit. And the Festival of Beers drew a record number of participating brewers.
Mammoth’s new summer festival offerings included new entries, one of which was the Mammoth Margarita Festival, headed up by Gomez’s owners and operators Michael Ledesma and Russ Squier, and Mammoth Rocks co-founder Mark Deeds.
SEPTEMBER:
Mammoth Hospital doctors and their “celebrity” partners were shaking their booties at the “Dancing with the Docs” gala event. The fundraiser, a dance competition between physicians, took the place of Mammoth Hospital’s Festival of Trees annual event. Team Jive — Radiologist Dr. Yuri Parisky and Kathy Copeland, Disabled Sports Eastern Sierra Executive Director —won the overall competition.
The Southwest Council, Federation of Fly Fishers’ Fly Fishing Faire came to Mammoth Lakes. Part of the Faire included a film festival, which featured screenings of “The Manzanar Fishing Club” and “The Mono Lake Story.”
After nearly 70 years since the Mono Inn last celebrated the author of “Huck Finn,” current owners Jim O’Meally and Mario Aguilar revived “Mark Twain Days.”
Mammoth Bluegrass Festival founder Dan Lehman turned his love of the musical genre into a two-day festival, another new entry on the summer scene, which made its debut in the Village at Mammoth.
OCTOBER:
Mammoth Lakes Repertory Theatre kept theatergoers’ toes tapping with “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” a funny, touching musical a trip back to 1958 and the Springfield High School prom with Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy. The show was “American Bandstand” meets “American Graffiti” meets “Happy Days,” with razor sharp wit embedded everywhere.
NOVEMBER:
MMSA focuses on providing a better level of entertainment and booking bigger acts, including its opening weekend “Carnivale” with headliner RZA.
Playhouse 395’s Children’s Theatre brought Dr. Seuss to life in its version of the popular “Seussical: The Musical!”
Winterfest presented by Vestal and Oakley featured bands Blondfire and LA Riots at Eagle Lodge, which was transformed into the set of “Hot Tub Time Machine” with an 80’s theme!
Playhouse 395 opened “The Subject Was Roses,” an award-winning family drama set in the 1940s, at Bishop’s Inyo Council for the Arts Theater.
Sierra Classic Theatre’s annual Murder Mystery Fundraiser debuted “Murder at the Market,” written and directed by Mike Dostrow.
“Barefoot in the Sanctuary,” a play by Eva Poole-Gilson, was performed at Bishop’s Inyo Council for the Arts Theater. The show was based on poems and songs Gilson found inspirational.
As a warmup for the Christmas season, for the first time since 2005, the Theatre of Note from Los Angeles brought the satirical musical “A Mulholland Christmas Carol” to Bishop Union High School. The adaptation tells the story of the birth of Los Angeles by casting water baron William Mulholland as Scrooge. “A Christmas Carol” presented a musical rendition of the Los Angeles water wars with Owens Valley mixing harmonies, history and humor in an acoustical, bluegrass take.
DECEMBER:
A tie boosted the number of finalists from three to four during the Mammoth edition of the national Poetry Out Loud event at Mammoth High School. Competing in the Mono County finals on Jan. 5, 2013 are Kate Wilson, Tatum Sandvigen, Taylor Sanders and Meritzel Herrera.
