The Guadalajara Reporter

Ribera arts review - January 17, 2014

Jocotepec city hall’s art and culture department is hosting a collective exhibit this month featuring work by some the town’s most accomplished artists.

The inauguration will be held at the Casa de Cultura de Jocotepec on Friday, January 17, 7:30 p.m. Music will provided by “Asuntos Varios” and there will be a welcoming cocktail.  The exhibit will be up until February 12.

Viva la Musica

Viva la Musica’s annual general meeting and gala will be held on Sunday January, 19 at the beautiful Ajijic home of Tony and Rosann Wilshere. 

The meeting starts at 3 p.m. with brief reports and election of officers for 2014.  All Viva members are welcome to attend.

Viva’s membership renewal party takes place from 4-6 p.m. 

There will be champagne and fabulous canapes from Manix Restaurant, as well as live music performed by guitarist Ernesto Carrasco, a brilliant Viva scholarship winner.

Members can bring a friend for 150 pesos. If they join Viva their money will be refunded.

Annual membership in Viva la Musica support music scholarships and permit discounts on trips to Guadalajara for Live at the Met simulcasts and performances by the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lip Sync success

A large multi-national cast of local entertainers gave it their all in four straight performances of Lip Sync Six, delighting audiences as they raised 155,000 pesos for the Auditorio de la Ribera renovation project. Highlights of the show included Paul and Harriet Hart (right) doing a comic version of the Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald classic ‘Indian Love Call’ and Lori Truly (below) rocking out with a flawless imitation of Janis Joplin belting out ‘Me and Bobby McGee.’

Playwriting Seminar

Sharon Pollock, the author of “Blood Relations” which opens this week at the Lakeside Little Theatre, is coming to Ajijic to see the production of her own play, and will be giving a playwriting seminar at the theater on Friday, January 24.  She is a distinguished Canadian playwright, and was honored (for this play) with the Governor-General’s Award for Drama in 1981.

If you are interested in plays and the skills of playwriting, the seminar “The Write Stuff for the Stage” is a unique opportunity to learn from a successful and dedicated professional with many awards and no less than 45 plays to her credit. 

Pollock writes: “Maybe you’ve got a draft of a play in hand.  Or perhaps your play is stillborn in your mind, it’s all there, you just seem unable to get it out.  Or you’re just a lover of theater, and interested in the journey of craft and imagination undertaken by the playwright in moving a story from the back of the brain through page to stage.”

Whatever the reason, Sharon invites you to join her for a stimulating afternoon of interactive discussion and dialogue.

The seminar will cost 100 pesos for LLT members (including season ticket holders), and 200 pesos for non-members.  Registration is at the theater at 12.30 p.m. on Friday, January 24 and the seminar will commence at 1 p.m.  

Naked Stage

The reading at the Naked Stage Theater on Friday, January 31; Saturday, February 1, and Sunday, February 2 is “And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little” by Paul Zindel, directed by Phyllis Silverman.

This is a touching dramatic comedy in which three sisters try to resolve their relationships.

The cast features Doreen Chaloner, Grace Holman, Maryanne Gibbard, Clay McAdam, Janice Taylor, Patricia Eyre and Bob Doiron.

The Naked Stage is located at Rio Bravo 10A in Ajijic, about two blocks behind Daniel’s Restaurant. The box office opens at 3:15 p.m. and the shows start at 4 p.m.

Reservations guarantee a seat until 3:50 p.m.; email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call Michelle: 765-6408.

Photo ops

Local photo artist Jill Flyer has announced a new schedule of photographic opportunities in the coming months.  First, she is offering a series of full day seminars on Wednesdays, as follows:  

• Travel Photography, Wednesday, January 29.
• Landscape Photography, Wednesday, February 5.
• Color Photography, Wednesday, February 12.
• Black & White Photography, Wednesday, February 19.
• Portrait Photography, Wednesday, February 26. 
• Basics of Photography (managing and understanding your camera), Wednesday, March 5.  

Each seminar will take around 5-6 hours and cost 250 pesos.  You can take two seminars for 225 pesos each and three for 200 pesos each. 

Each participant will receive one free 2014 calendar of Flyer’s photos (a value of 140 pesos).  Participants will meet at her house and discuss the basic elements of the class and then proceed to an appropriate site to shoot, returning back to the house to review and critique everyone’s photos (to be projected on a large screen TV).

Sundays will be devoted to photo/workshop tours of the area.  Tour costs are 100 dollars per day, plus 20 dollars for each additional person after the second person.  Participants may learn as much or as little about photography and their camera as they wish.  Each participant will also receive one free 2014 calendar.  The tour dates are: Sunday, February 2 (Guadalajara), Sunday, February 9 (Tequila), Sunday, February 16 (Tonala – a half day tour), Sunday, February 23 (Mezcala and Mezcala Island) and Sunday, March 2 (Tlaquepaque –  half day tour) and Sunday March 9 (Tlajomulco, Santa Cruz de Flores, San Juan Evagelista and the studio of Martin Ibarra).

You can also check out the tour slideshows and costs at www.mexploration.net.

Flyer and Luis Mancera McComick (of Quattro) are again shooting weddings and events.  They shoot simultaneously to ensure there are not equipment failures nor illness.  With two people shooting, you are assured of getting more photos and different angles, she says.

For further information, call Flyer at 766-3025 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Mariachi

The 9th annual Mariachi Gala – a fundraiser for the San Andres Apostle Parish – will be held February 7, 7 p.m., at the Real de Chapala Hotel in lower La Floresta.  This year, ranchera singer Azucena will be performing with Mariachi Mi Jalisco.

Azucena was discovered 14 years ago at the age of 13. She has just released her fourth album, titled “Rezare,” which she is promoting when she isn’t hosting the television program “Noche a Noche Contigo,” alongside Carlos Cuevas and Ricardo Caballero.  The program can be seen Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 p.m. on Guadalajara Televisa’s Channel 4.

Tickets for the gala are 250 pesos each and worth every centavo. They are available from the San Andres church office between 10.30 a.m. and 2 p.m. and 4 and 7 p.m. each day, except Sunday. Or call Trish at 766-5233.

Piano Rojo

An entertainer with natural comedic timing, striking looks and versatile vocals will grace the stage at El Piano Rojo in Ajijic next weekend.

Bonnie Kilroe has been a professional and award-winning entertainer for more than 15 years, the last ten of which she has dedicated to her one-woman act – Celebrity Imposters.

She combines fabulous medleys of music, video and physical comedy, to produce a multimedia entertainment experience with professional production values, combined with surprising twists, which bring much laughter and delight (even some tears) to her ever-growing legion of fans. During her shows, Kilroe uses her skill as a performer to encourage audience participation, which always adds an extra element of novelty and surprise.

Kilroe has been singing and strutting her stuff to the enjoyment of local, national, and international audiences, in theaters, convention centers, casinos, cruise ships, and less exotic stages.  She will appear at El Piano Rojo for the first time on Friday, January 24, and Saurday, January 25, 6 & 8 p.m.; and Sunday, January 26, 6 p.m. El Piano Rojo is located at Morelos 14, Ajijic, Call (376) 766-2876 for reservations.