First-class concert
Renowned Mexican singers, composers and guitarists Paco Padilla and Alberto Escobar will appear as special guests of the San Juan Cosala youth choir at the Saturday, November 21, 7 p.m. benefit concert in the Auditorio de la Ribera.
The local choir is part of the 100-member Orquesta Filármonica Infantil de la Ribera de Chapala (OFIRC), a charitable organization established in 2014 to provide opportunities for the children. In addition to learning to work as a team and developing musical talent, students are improving scholastic performances. The program strives to help the participants from involvement in drugs, alcoholism, violence and lives without hope due to the poverty, vulnerability and marginalization pervasive in many lakeside villages.
Proceeds from this concert will enable the orchestra to purchase additional instruments. Tickets are 150 pesos. They are available from Diane Pearl Colecciones in Ajijic, at Café Bonjour Paris and Viva Mexico in San Juan Cosalá and at the door on the day of the show.
Gloriosa Salon
Works by artist Simohn Spearitt will be displayed in the Gloriosa Salon on Saturday, November 21, 5-8 p.m.
Spearitt has resided and studied in New York, Los Angeles, London and Santa Fe, where she mastered the art of silk painting and also designed clothing for her Atelier retail space. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, with plein air master Sam Colburn, one of the influential “California-5” group of artists.
Her nature-based work features cosmic iconic symbolism. “All her work is magical and timeless,” says Barbara Story Snider, a master astrologist and collector in Pebble Beach, California.
Spearitt’s work features in the collections of celebrities, including Ervin (Magic) Johnson, Montel Williams, Lucille Ball, Gene Hackman and the late Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, the former curator of textiles and costumes at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and founder of the Santa Fe Folk Art Museum.
The Gloriosa Salon is in Plaza Interlago, at Libramiento 132.
Mexican Abstract Art
An exhibit of the works of Zacatecan contemporary master of Mexican abstract art, Jesus Reyes Cordero, opens at Galeria Di Paola on Saturday, November 21, noon-6 p.m.
Displaying their projects in other areas of the gallery are artists Leticia Schmidt and Monica Contreras, as well as photographers Jose Martinez Verca, Sergio Garibay and Jose Hernandez Claire.
Galeria di Paola is at Calle Colon 11 in the center of Ajijic.
Jeffery Straker Concert
Following last year’s hit run of lakeside performances, performer Jeffery Straker returns to the Auditorium de la Ribera del Lago for a Wednesday, December 2, 4 p.m. concert to benefit the children of Niños Incapacitados and the Lake Chapala Society educational programs.
Naked Stage
“Crimes of the Heart,” the story of three sisters living in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in the 1950s, is the next production of the Naked Stage Theater, running from Friday, November 27 through Sunday, November 29.
Directed by Lila Wells, the play reading features Patricia Guy, Pamela Johnson, Helena Feldstein, Pierre Blackburn, Anne Drake and Paul Moreau.
The Naked Stage is located at Rio Bravo 10, Ajijic. The bar opens at 3 p.m. on each day and the box office at 3:15 p.m. Shows start at 4 p.m. Make reservations by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. All reservations are confirmed by return email.
Street Fair
Ajijic’s Calle Morelos will be cordoned off for pedestrian traffic only on Sunday, November 29 for the Andador Cultural San Andrés, a street fair tied in to the town’s annual fiestas patronales (see story page 16).
The all-day happening is planned to allow businesses located along the stretch between Ocampo and the town pier to extend beyond their storefronts, offering merchandise and food services to customers wandering freely on foot. A program of continuous live musict is also on the slate as an added enticement to visitors.
LLT ‘Rumors’
Hysterical, fast-paced and fun, the elegant farce “Rumors,” directed by Paul Kloegman, plays at the Lakeside Little Theatre from Friday, December 4 through Sunday, December 13.
Charley Brock, deputy mayor of New York, and his wife Myra, have invited eight good friends to help celebrate their anniversary. The first couple arrives to find that Myra is missing, and that Charley has “accidentally” shot himself and is unconscious. As the remaining guests arrive, each is drawn into increasingly unlikely and complicated scenarios that only Neil Simon can provide.
The ensemble cast includes Collette Clavadetscher, Frankie Alexander, Candace Luciano, Dave McIntosh, Zane Pumiglia, Georgette Richmond, Al Kirkland, Jr., Sharon Lowry, Fred Koesling and Alice Poltrock.
Tickets are available at the theater box office on Wednesday, November 25 and Thursday, November 26, 10 a.m. to noon. The box office is open from 10 a.m. to noon every day during the run of the show, except Sundays, and for one hour before the opening of each show.
Reserve tickets via email at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via message at the LLT box office at (376) 766-0954.
Christmas Gala Ballet
More than 50 students from three area schools of classical ballet will present two gala Christmas recitals at the Auditorio de la Ribera del Lago on Sunday, December 6, noon and 5 p.m. General admission tickets at the Auditorium box office are 60 pesos.
“The student dancers will present excerpts from diverse ballets, including ‘Giselle,’ ‘Don Quijote’, ‘Harlequinade,’ ‘Chopiniana’ (Les Sylphides) and the second act of seasonal favorite ‘The Nutcracker,’” says Laura Fernandez, director general of the Escuela de Ballet Clasico del Auditorio de la Ribera.
Joining the Ajijic students will be dance students from the Escuela Municipal de Ballet de Tlajomulco and the Centro Releve de Ballet Clasico in Zapopan.
Hector Hernandez, father and instructor of world-famous ballet dancers Isaac and Esteban Hernandez, is the director general of the three schools. Isaac is the principle dancer in the English National Ballet in London and Esteban is in the San Francisco Ballet.
For information about the ballet schools or the event, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Los Cantantes
A favorite December event every year is the Los Cantantes del Lago Holiday Concert. Under the direction of Timothy G. Ruff Welch, the event is set for Tuesday, December 8, 7 p.m. and Wednesday, December 9, 4 p.m. in the Auditorio de la Ribera del Lago. Tickets are available at the auditorium, at Diane Pearl Colecciones and from Cantantes members.