If everything goes as planned, 60 Vero Beach High School orchestra members will be waltzing through Vienna this June on a 10-day trip that will have them performing at four different venues. The mind-boggling doesn’t stop with that prospect, however: They first have to raise $4,000 each. It is by far the most ambitious field trip to date for the acclaimed orchestra and an experience their director, Matt Stott, says they could get no other way. The kids have turned into fundraising machines, hosting dinners, selling baked goods and giving mini-concerts all over town.
Saturday night in the high school’s Performing Arts Center the student string players will be joined by professional and semi-professional wind, brass and percussion musicians as well as piano soloists and choral singers for a night of Viennese music.
The concert includes church music directors Jacob Craig, who performs on piano; and Jason Hobratschk, who conducts the chorus in Beethoven’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” featuring VBHS sophomore Samantha Kmetz as soloist. And harpist Gretchen Cover will join Vero High alum Bridget Johnston on cello in Johann Strauss Jr.’s “Romance No. 1 for Harp, Cello and Orchestra.”
The Saturday concert starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are from $30 to $50.
While a red-hot, must-see production of “Chicago” takes place on Riverside Theatre’s main stage, the absurdist comedy “An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf” opens Tuesday in the black box theater next door. Michael Hollinger’s comedy opened in 1994 in Philadelphia, where he is on the faculty of Villanova University. Directed by the theater’s producing artistic director Allen Cornell, who also designed the sets, the production stars a cast that includes Brian Myers Cooper as Claude, the headwaiter of the world’s best restaurant; and Matthew Henerson as Victor, the Paris establishment’s sole patron and owner. Victor arrives for dinner in a deep depression, intending to starve himself to death. The staff despairs since he is their livelihood, and finally he agrees to let them prepare a seven-course repast and present him only empty platters – but piled high with florid descriptions. The smart comedy has a fitting star: Henerson graduated cum laude from Yale.
The play runs through Feb. 2.
The Treasure Coast History Festival is taking place Saturday in Fort Pierce along Second Street in front of the Sunrise Theatre. The free festival, organized by longtime Fort Pierce journalist Gregory Enns, includes trolley tours, a ghost walking tour, and reenactments including an old Florida cattle camp. Then inside the Sunrise as well as in the St. Lucie Bank Building across the street, the interesting speakers include a group of former students of the famous African-American author Zora Neale Hurston, who once taught school in Fort Pierce. And author Sally Putnam Chapman will talk about the Binney, Chapman and Putnam families – that’s Binney of Crayola crayons, and Putnam as in G.P. Putnam the publisher who married Amelia Earhart (she once flew secretly to Fort Pierce). Also speaking are members of the Tommie family, prominent members of the Seminole tribe. And a Vero resident, Al Grover, a retired boat builder from Long Island, will be on hand to talk about his tale of crossing the Atlantic in a 26-foot outboard motor boat.
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Then Saturday night at the Sunrise, a little more history – Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., the former lead singers of The Fifth Dimension. McCoo is now 73; Davis is 78. Then Sunday, the 1980s soft-rock band Air Supply performs.
In West Palm, Michael Bolton plays the Kravis Center Friday night. Then Saturday night, the innovative 8-piece orchestra Pink Martini, performs with lead singer China Forbes. The orchestra’s founder describes it as an “urban musical travelogue” with Forbes singing in 15 languages.
Next Tuesday and Wednesday, Kravis’ Peak series presents Compagnie Hervé KOUBI in the Rinker Playhouse. The 17-member French-Algerian and West African all-male dance troupe made its debut in the States three years ago to dazzling reviews and is coming to Florida for the first time after appearing at Jacob’s Pillow in August. Tickets, $32, include a glass of wine or beer.
On Clematis Street in West Palm, Palm Beach Dramaworks is workshopping a new play in its upstairs Perlberg Studio Theater. “Domestic Animals” by Jennifer Faletto looks at the impact of the Vietnam war through the eyes of a woman whose brother is a draft dodger while her husband enlists. There are matinee and evening performances, with a talkback after the play. Seating is limited though – tickets are only $18.