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Ribera Arts Review – December 27, 2014

Patsy Cline

Tickets are available for “Always … Patsy Cline” written by Ted Swindley, reprised from the very successful production presented at lakeside by My, My, How Nice! Productions a few years ago. 

Based on a true story, this fun-loving play with music recounts the unlikely friendship between country music legend Patsy Cline and her most devoted fan, Louise Seger. 

Combining down-home county humor and heartache, the show features 27 of Patsy Cline’s unforgettable hits, including “Crazy,” “Walkin’ After Midnight” and “Sweet Dreams.” It stars Patteye Simpson and Jayme Littlejohn and is accompanied by Timothy G. Ruff Welch on piano. 

The show opens at the new Bravo! Theatre (the old Sol y Luna at Rio Bravo 10) on Thursday, January 1, 7:30 p.m. Subsequent shows are scheduled January 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10, at 7:30 p.m. and January 4 and 11, at 3 p.m.

Tickets at $250 pesos are available from Diane Pearl Colecciones, Mia’s Boutique and by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

This 2015 revival will be another landmark, as it will be the first show to be held in MyMy’s new theater and permanent home, the Bravo! Theatre.

Lopez Vega show

Well known Ajijic artist Jesús López Vega  kicks off the new year with an exhibit of works put together under the title Imaginería Fantástica (Fantastic Imagery) booked for the second floor galleries at the Centro Cultural de Ajijic. The show opens Saturday, January 3, 3 to 7 p.m., with a cocktail reception and live music.

ASA

Member Hershel Clepper will present a program and demonstration of wood carving and finishing during the Monday, January 5, 10 a.m. meeting of the Ajijic Arts Society (ASA)  at La Bodega Restaurant. 

Texas native Clepper was attending Texas Tech in 1952 when he was drafted. He received electronics training in the U.S. Army on the east coast and at White Sands Missile Range. He continued at White Sands as a civilian, and then his electronics career expanded as he worked for some of the biggest name electronics companies, including Ampex, Lockheed Missiles and Space, and Boeing Aerospace, where he taught electronics in the training department. 

During that time, Clepper created a hobby around woodworking that began with the creation of numerous wooden items requested by his late wife, a tole painter. Following her 1991 death, he missed the woodwork until he spotted a book on the Kachina Dolls representing the spirit figures of the Hopi Indians in the Salt Lake City Airport. He started woodcarving to make the kachinas and later expanded into Northwestern U.S. Indian art. 

The winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Spring 2014 ASA Show for his Tawa (Sunface), Clepper plans that the caricatures he is now crafting will be the subject of his entry in the 2015 ASA show in May. 

Clepper and his wife Carole moved to Mexico in 2006. He joined ASA in 2014. He carves every day, plays tennis six hours a week, and goes out dancing with Carole once or twice a week.

Antonio Lopez Vega

As a follow up to the Art Xik Xik master art lecture series, works by local artist Antonio Lopez Vega will be exhibited in the home of Francisco Javier Gonzalez Nava on Saturday, December 27 and Tuesday, December 30, from 3-5pm. 

Gonzalez calls this “the last chance” to see this rare, retrospective collection spanning several decades before it is dismantled.

The showing takes place at Encarnacion Rosas 280 Encarnacion Rosas, in Ajijic, north of Ming Wah Restaurant. Those interested in attending are asked to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in advance. For more information, visit http://artxikxik.blogspot.mx.

Sculptors confab

Four accomplished sculptors will showcase their talents during the January 5 through 18 Lake Chapala Festival of Arts and Culture. The Encuentro de Escultores features artists Dolores Ortíz, David Agredano, Estanislao Contreras and Estela Hidalgo who will set up an open air studio at the waterfront Malecón to carve large scale stone sculptures. The event will be inaugurated on Monday, January 5, 6 p.m., at the Zalate de Felisa outside the Beer Garden Restaurant with live music performed by Ensamble Latino.  

Paco Padilla

Paco Padilla and the students, teachers and parents at the School for Special Children in Jocotopec formed a mutual admiration society when the renowned Tlaquepaque folk singer performed recently at the school. 

The audience was delighted with Padilla’s performance and he was so enchanted by the students that he promised to return to lakeside to give a concert benefiting the school. 

The benefit dinner/show scheduled for Saturday, January 24, 8 p.m. at La Bodega will allow ticket holders the option of  choosing the 6 p.m. dinner seating prior to the performance, or dining fashionably late at the 9:30 p.m. seating. 

The music of Padilla, who is also a skilled artisan specializing in ceramics, has broad appeal, featuring traditional Mexican folk favorites, as well as his own contemporary compositions, many of them humorous. 

Tickets for the dinner/show are 350 pesos. Tables for ten can be  reserved by calling the restaurant at (376) 766-1002. Other ticket holders will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. The event has been arranged by school principal Imelda Camacho and her staff. For more information, contact Maritza Freyslinger at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Jeffery Straker

Internationally-acclaimed and award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter-pianist Jeffery Straker’s eclectic mix of energy and showmanship guarantees a fun night when he performs at the Auditorio de la Ribera on Thursday, February 12 and Friday, February 13.

Straker presents the premiere live performance of “Simply Spectacular,” his 7th album, during the February 12 event. The following night, the talented youngsters of the CREM Choir and Symphony Orchestra join Straker for a unique night of music to benefit the Niños Incapacitados charity.

Tickets are priced at 300 pesos for center seating and 200 pesos for side seats, and are available online through the new website programaninos.com. For walk-in convenience, purchase tickets from Wednesday January 28 through Thursday, February 12 at Charter Club Tours or from 10 a.m. to noon at the auditorium ticket office. Any unsold tickets will be available at the door.