Puffio

Direct from the Big Apple, and touted as the nation's leader in Audience Development by the Arts & Business Council of America, Donna Walker-Kuhne is to give a free public lecture entitled 'Invitation To The Party - Building Bridges to the Arts, Culture & Community'. She specialises in marketing the arts to culturally diverse audiences, and her new book 'Invitation To The Party' is a best seller in the North American arts industry. Walker-Kuhne's lecture is to be held at Nexus Cabaret (behind the Mercury Cinema) on Sat 19 June from 10am to midday. You have plenty of advance notice to rearrange that important occasion or hairdresser's appointment...

Daniel Clarke, new Artistic Director for the Feast Festival, has announced this year's theme. Each and every year the Feast Festival adopts a fairly broad theme, or themes, and this is the eleventh such festival (doesn't time really fly by...?). For 2007 the word is 'love'. Yep, that's it. 'Love' is a fairly simple enough idea for an all-encompassing festival really. Which brings Puffio to the principal point: the registration of events is now open. This year the Feast Festival will run for two weeks from Sat 10 to Sun 25 Nov, and as an open access arts festival any artist or company who consider their work appropriate for a queer festival can register an event. Do it now, either at www.feast.org.au or phone 08 8231 2155.

You'd call it 'Guitarissimo' as a first choice of name, right? That's what was decided upon for a series of concerts featuring the best guitar-slingers at the Elder Conservatorium of Music coming up later this month... 'Guitarissimo' begins on Mon 28 May from 6.30pm at the Pilgrim Church in Flinders Street, Adelaide and features the talents of musicians Jody Fisher, Ben Brakenridge, Jason Williams and Kirsty Forbes (clarinet) alongside guests Andrey Lebedev (guitar), Laura Pierce (flute) and the Marryatville Guitar Ensemble. The whole affair is to be helmed by Event Director, internationally acclaimed German guitarist Oliver Fartach-Naini, and the programme offers an exciting mixture of solo and chamber music with some popular tunes thrown in.

As mentioned in the big ole Puffio last issue, 'Little Women' is an opera by Mark Adamo, to be presented and performed in Adelaide as a co-promotion between the State Opera South Australia and State Theatre Company of South Australia. Opening night is Sat 19 May and the opera runs until Sat 2 June in the Playhouse at the Festival Centre. The American production of 'Little Women' suggested the The New York Times, was "Some sort of masterpiece...", which surely rates as some kind of an evenhanded assessment. This production is to be conducted by Timothy Sexton and directed by Adam Cook, from State Opera and State Theatre Company respectively.

For those of you in the know, or who need to be in the know, there's a change in the voting procedure for the 2007 Helpmann Awards. Since they were established in 2001 the Helpmann Awards have celebrated excellence and achievement in live performance across Australia. A new website has been launched at www.helpmannawards.com.au so that interested parties might keep abreast of the news as it is revealed. This year nominations for the Awards will be announced at consecutive events from Mon 9 July. And the Award Ceremony will be held in August with full details to be announced soon.

Pianist Kathryn Selby teams up with the acclaimed Janaki String Trio to tour Australia to promote the trio's first ever visit to this country. They perform in Adelaide on Sun 20 May. With violinist Serena McKinney, violist Katie Kadarauch and cellist Arnold Choi, the Janaki Trio were recently hailed by the 'New York Times' as having "irresistible electricity" and presenting "earthy, magnificently polished" performances. Their performance will feature the music of the Polish composer Penderecki, and Selby will join the trio for FaurŽ's incredible Piano Quartet in C minor, Op.15.

On Sat 10 March 2007 filmmakers from around the world participated in the 15/15 Film Festival's annual filming day by creating a short film within 15 hours. The results are now screening around Australia as the (funnily enough) 15/15 Film Festival. The screening will feature local films in each destination, followed by a selection from the 2007 international collection. Catch them screening at the Mercury Cinema on Fri 8 June from 7.30pm.

For something close to the last fifteen years Melbourne based performance artist Stelarc has been an iconic international Australian artist working with robotics, interconnectivity with the human body, virtual appendages, neural systems, and all manner of the bizarre accoutrement with which to extend the functionality of the human experience. His scope (or vision) might be described as extraordinary, if he didn't make it somewhat matter-of-fact. Stelarc has a season of his work opening on Fri 1 June at the Experimental Art Foundation. Not to be missed.

An exhibition featuring the recent work by Adelaide artist Andrew Smart breaks into the world of seduction and symbolism through detailed composition using a variety of illustration and printing techniques. Upstairs at the Grace Emily Hotel - the grandly named Grace Emily Art Space - is the place to be for Smart's works, the exhibition of which opens on Thurs 17 May.

"When Teppic inherits the throne of the timeless desert kingdom of Djelibeybi..." we're clearly talking about another Terry Pratchett play, coming up at the Bakehouse Theatre. He's prolific, is that Pratchett bloke, which is just as well since Unseen Theatre Co have a thirst to perform his work which is unmatched by most mere mortals. 'Pyramids' is the latest installment, and it is currently performing at the Bakehouse Theatre until Sat 26 May.