FRIDAY
Cuban culture heats up event at art museum
We all know that Cuban culture is hot, hot, hot, while U.S. relations with Cuba have been cold, cold, cold. But with conditions now thawing, the Honolulu Museum of Art is celebrating.
“We chose Cuba because it’s a pretty exciting time in history for Cuba,” said Rebecca Barat, special-events coordinator for the museum.
Guests will be entertained by a salsa performance by Linda Melodia Dance Company, with lessons for visitors. They can then join in on the fun to music by Rolando Sanchez and Salsa Hawaii. “He’ll have a very ‘caliente’ performance,” Barat said, translating: “Very hot, in a good way.”
Flamenco guitarist Thi Van Nguyen and DJ Roman Candles will provide more musical entertainment. Visitors can also try their hand at cubilete, a pokerlike game that uses dice instead of cards, or Cuban dominoes, which is considered the national game of Cuba.
While the museum does not have a Cuban art collection, there will be an art game during which people can match up works from the museum’s collection with aspects of Cuban life. “It will say, ‘Find people enjoying a game outdoors or an antique car,’ and people will have to go into our collection of contemporary art and find those things,” Barat said.
Be sure to come hungry. Chicken empanadas, Frita Cubana sliders, island fish escabeche and Cuban-style pork adobo from Honolulu chef Sean Priester, pictured inset, will be among the food available.
Where: Honolulu Museum of Art
When: 6-9 p.m. today
Cost: $25, free for museum members
Info: artafterdark.org or 532-8700
FRIDAY-AUG. 14
Chaminade Theatre Festival showcases the talents of young adults
College theater students from Hawaii and around the country will stage three plays over the next few weekends at Chaminade University’s Collegiate Theatre Festival.
Tonight and Saturday the festival spotlights “Next to Normal,” a story about a mother’s struggle with bipolar disorder. The rock musical won three Tony Awards in 2009 and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, becoming just the eighth musical in history to win the prize.
From Aug. 4-6 students will stage “Almost Maine,” a series of vignettes about love and lost love in a town so remote that it’s as if it “almost” doesn’t exist. The third production is “Rose and the Rime,” a children’s story about a town cursed to a wintry existence and the young girl who saves it. It will be staged from Aug. 5-7 and 11-14 at the Loo Theatre.
The festival began last year as a dance program that attracted local students who attended colleges around the country. It has evolved into an intensive theater program involving students from San Diego, St. Louis, Seattle and Hawaii, who have been working for eight weeks on acting, directing, costuming, set design and technical production.
“It’s all student-driven. All three directors are graduate students at the University of Hawaii,” notes Christopher Patrinos, a staff member at Chaminade who is organizing the festival.
Kevin Berg directs “Next to Normal”; Patrinos, who is also a graduate theater student at UH, directs “Almost Maine”; and Nathaniel Niemi, who recently won a directing award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in Washington, D.C., directs “Rose and the Rime.”
Where: Chaminade University, 3140 Waialae Ave.
When: “Next to Normal,” 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday; “Almost Maine,” 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4-6; “Rose and the Rime,” 7 p.m. Aug. 5-6 and 11-13; 2 p.m. Aug. 7, 14
Cost: $10-$25 (three-show passes are $30-$50)
Info: showtix4u.com or 866-967-8167
Rainbow Film Festival launches at Hula’s Bar
Get an early preview of The Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival with a launch party today at Hula’s Bar & Lei Stand.
The party, dubbed “Sinema,” will feature trailers of some of the 20 films that will be screened during the monthlong festival, including “Strike a Pose,” a documentary about Madonna’s dancers during her “Truth or Dare” tour in 1990. (Two of the dancers, Jose Gutierez and Kevin Stea, will be on hand at the festival’s opening-night screening at 7 p.m. Aug. 6.)
Hula’s also will celebrate the film festival with a live burlesque performance by Pretty Peacock Productions, a drag performance and a male revue routine. Proceeds from the evening go to the film festival.
For information about the film festival, which runs weekends from Aug. 6 through 28 at the Honolulu Museum of Art, visit hrff.gala-engine.com/2016.
Where: Hula’s Bar & Lei Stand, Waikiki Grand Hotel, 134 Kapahulu Ave.
When: 7 p.m. today
Cost: $20
Info: hulas.com
SATURDAY
Filipino funnyman returns to Honolulu
Perk up, Pinoys. Rex Navarette, the stand-up comedian who pokes fun at the foibles of Filipino culture, returns to Honolulu for a performance at Hawaii Theatre Center on Saturday.
Navarette, who was born in Manila and grew up in San Francisco, has been doing stand-up since 1989 and made his first appearance in Honolulu in 1994. He eventually relocated here, living on the west side for more than six years, but he now lives in Portland, Ore. Some of his appearances in Hawaii were featured in his 2005 DVD “Badass Madapaka.”
The comedian has produced several albums and DVDs, with some of his classic work appearing in his 2003 DVD, “Hella Pinoy,” which listed a number of ways to identify the most Filipino characteristics — “If you have tile (floors) and you still put plastic forerunners with the suction cups to suck onto the tile, then you’re hella Pinoy.”
He’s also known for voicing some funny cartoons (originally on Filipino TV stations, but they can also be found on YouTube), including a “Maritess” series of cartoons about a Filipina maid and “The Nutshack,” which was billed as “the first animated series made by Filipino-Americans, a Mexican and black dude.”
Where: Hawaii Theatre
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $22-$32
Info: hawaiitheatre.com or 528-0506
Pianist Tommy James plays some of Duke Ellington’s lesser-known tunes, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Atherton Studio, Hawaii Public Radio, $15-$30, khpr.org or 955-8821.
