November 18-24, 2004

art

artsquicks

by Lori Hill

cabaret

Whether they're about theater-industry hijinks (Box Office of the Damned) or the Lindbergh baby kidnapping (Baby Case), Michael Ogborn writes songs that will leave you humming for days. This week, the Arden offers a rare treat: Ogborn himself, performing his songs in a two-night-only stint. That's right, just the composer, a piano and your feet tapping to songs from his repertoire, including the prostitutes-in-postwar-Amsterdam comedy Café Puttanesca (for which actress Mary Martello just won a Barrymore Award) and sneak peeks of his newest work, A Tour in the Ruins. Fri., Nov. 19, 8 p.m. and Sat., Nov. 20, 8 and 10 p.m., $25-$30, Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. Second St., 215-922-1122.

benefit

Mystery loves company. Dancer Kate Watson-Wallace's newest project, The Mentalist, is still a secret work-in-progress, yet she's wrangled some kindred spirits to help get it off the ground with a benefit party this Sunday. Slated for this spring in a venue yet to be determined, The Mentalist, says Watson-Wallace, is, like her other work, mixed-media based, collaborative and working around a theme. "The theme being insanity," she says with a nervous laugh. "I'm interested in the connections between creativity and madness." Providing both for the benefit is an all-star cast of local dancers (Headlong Dance Theater, Montazh, Heather Murphy, Olase Freeman and Myra Bazell) and musicians (Monica McIntyre, Phil Moore Brown and Pink Scull). Emcee Lee Etzold and DJ Rahsaan will keep the madness under control. Sun., Nov. 21, 9 p.m., $10, The Five Spot, 5 S. Bank St., 215-574-0070.

lecture

At a time when the country is anticipating the ultimate public artwork—the monument to the World Trade Center—Tom Eccles, director of New York's Public Art Fund, comes to the Fabric Workshop and Museum with his ideas about bringing artwork outside the walls of museums and galleries. Eccles has organized art exhibitions for public spaces in New York City (Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Park Avenue), and here he kicks off the FWM's series on community-based arts programming. Look for two panel discussions next spring. Fri., Nov. 19, 6 p.m., free, Fabric Workshop and Museum, 1315 Cherry St., fifth floor, 215-568-1111.