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Last updateFri, 24 Apr 2015 4pm

Ribera Arts Review - April 24, 2015

Naked Stage

The Naked Stage minimalist readers’ theater presents “Come Back to the Five & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” by Ed Graczyk on Friday, April 24, Saturday, April 25 and Sunday, April 26. All performances start at 4 p.m.

Directed by Jim Lloyd, the play is centered on a James Dean fan club that meets at a Texas five-and-dime store.  The local star-studded cast includes Jim Ryan, Caroline McCormack, Damyn Young, Amy Friend, Lila Wells, Patricia Guy, Florette Schnelle and Sharon Lowry.

Naked Stage productions take place at Rio Bravo 10, Ajijic. The bar opens at 3 p.m. and the box office at 3:15 p.m.

Women’s Art

The first women’s collective art exhibit will be held Saturday, April 25, 7 p.m. at La Rueda, the coffee house, cafe and gallery on Porfirio Diaz in San Juan Cosala. Area women will be showing their paintings, textiles, sculpture, prints, batik and performance art, including jazz. All are welcome.

Ancient Music

Galatea, a Guadalajara ensemble, will perform a concert of historically documented ancient music at Centro Cultural Cultural Gonzalez Gallo in Chapala on Sunday, April 26, 4 p.m.

Using antique instruments and others carefully reproduced to mimic the sound and action of the originals, the group creates a musical tour in the distinct styles developed during the Baroque era in France, Italy, England and Spain.

Carlos Omar Lopez Gonzalez studied music at the University of Guadalajara (UdG) Music School and today is the their head guitar instructor dedicated to the study of antique instruments, including the baroque guitar, renaissance lute and renaissance vihuela.

Avelina de la O. Gutierrez Alcala studied sacred music for five years at the Superior Dioceses, as well as violin technique at the UdG. She is currently in the sixth semester of her music degree with special study in choral direction. She has also participated in a variety of master classes, recitals and choral programs, as well as working with the Giuseppe Verdi Opera Workshop. 

Miguel Hoyos Peña began his formal music studies in 2007 and has a special interest in antique music. He has investigated and experimented with diverse techniques for the baroque violin, which has given him the opportunity to participate in a number of courses and madrigals with masters in the genre. He has proven his ability as a baroque violinist in the Ensemble Ritornello y Hortus Musicus and worked with Santiago Cumplido, Ars Antiqua and Hibris Baroque Ensemble.

ASA Meeting

Jesus Lopez Vega is again scheduled to be the speaker at the next regular monthly meeting of the Ajijic Society of the Arts (ASA), at La Bodega on Monday, May 4. 

During the 10 a.m. business meeting the group will discuss upcoming summer events, and the success of the recent juried show. Ken Caldwell will be on hand to present a large donation from ASA to representatives of the Lake Chapala Society (LCS). These funds represent the income of the ASA Annual Open Studio event. The money will be earmarked to pay for materials and expenses for the weekly Saturday morning Children’s Art Program held on the LCS grounds. 

The program planned by Lopez Vega will showcase one of the local lakeside legends he is including in a new book he is about to complete. He will relate the story of Michicihualli, the spirit of Lake Chapala that Lopez Vega painted in the stairwell of the Casa de Cultura. 

“This old legend speaks about the last tribe, the Nahua, that came from the north, in search of water,” he says. “When they found Lake Chapala, they celebrated by giving it offerings. These tiny clay pots and spoons and other items were a tribute to the lake and to the fertility the lake gave the area.” 

Therapeutic Color

Lois Schroff’s latest book, “Physical and Spiritual Experience of Color – Therapeutic and Artistic Aspects,” is a review of her artistic pursuit that began in Holland in the 1970s. She was one of the early and continuing pioneers of Rudolf Steiner’s painting methods in North America. Steiner’s approach was strongly influenced by Goethe’s color theories.

Schroff’s third book draws on many theories concerning light and darkness as spiritual phenomena, and color as a soul experience. 

Her book can be described as an intimate sharing, like a conversation with a friend, where the reader is privileged to partake in the unfolding offerings, insights, musings and associations as the author shares the distillation of a long life of artistic practice. 

Through the resources that have inspired Schroff’s decades of active involvement in art, the book becomes an method of exploration, a perusal of many points of view that form a fascinating quilt of living questions to fire the enthusiasm and fuel research using her guide posts as starting points.

Schroff’s book is available in Ajijic at Diane Pearl Colecciones and can be ordered through 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..