A round-up of Bradenton-area arts and entertainment news
He gets around.
Brian Wilson is coming back to the area. The driving force behind the distinctive sound of the Beach Boys, and the creator of some gorgeous solo albums, is coming back to the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg. It will be his second visit to the Mahaffey within a year.
Wilson, with former Beach Boys Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin, performed in November at the Mahaffey. They'll be back, along with a backing band, on Sept. 13.
This time around, they're celebrating the 50th anniversary of "Pet Sounds," which has come to be regarded as one the finest and most influential albums of the rock era. Wilson and friends will perform "Pet Sounds" in its entirety -- including such hits as "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "Sloop John B." "God Only Knows" and "Caroline, No" -- plus other Beach Boys songs and selections from Wilson's solo albums.
Tickets just went on sale Saturday, so there should be plenty of great seats left. They'll run you $55.50, $65.50, $75.50 or $85.50. Call 727-893-7832 or go to themahaffey.com.
Got talent?
If you're a performer waiting for your big break, you might want to head over to Orlando.
People from "America's Got Talent" are traveling around the country looking for acts to compete in the show's 11th season. They're holding auditions in 12 cities, and Orlando is one of them.
Anyone can audition. All you have to do is register at agtauditions.com, and then show up at the Orange County Convention Center, 9800 International Drive on Feb. 19. Doors open at 7 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m.
The playwright stuff
Hundreds of playwrights from around the country submitted scripts to the 20th annual Fine Arts Association One-Act Festival in Willoughby, Ohio. Out of 702 submissions, only 11 plays, about 1.5 percent, were chosen for production. Out of
those 11, two came from Manatee County playwrights, Bradenton's Connie Schindewolf and Longboat Key's Philip W. Hall.
That's awfully impressive.
Schindewolf's play is titled "Chopping Celery," and it revolves around three generations of women who write to each other regarding the upcoming holidays and the importance of tradition. Hall's "Garbage In" has two guys discussing the absurdities of life after marriage.
Willoughby is a lovely suburb of Cleveland. If you happen to be up that way this spring, you might want to check out the festival. It runs April 8-23. Information is at fineartsassociation.org.
Frankly fantastic
Manatee Players are winding up what may be their most successful couple of weeks ever.
In Stone Hall, a fantastic production of "A Chorus Line" sold out night after night. Next door in the smaller Bradenton Kiwanis Theater, an excellent staging of "The Diary of Anne Frank" was also regularly sold out. (There's one more performance tonight, Jan. 31, in case you want to try to get tickets.)
Both shows deserved to get that kind of reception. They featured Pulitzer Prize-winning scripts and some phenomenal performances.
It was just a few months ago that the shows in the smaller theater at the Manatee Performing Arts Center were struggling attract paltry crowds.
Now that space is comfortably full even on opening night, and crowded later in the run. It has a lot to do with Manatee Players staging stronger and more familiar plays in that space.
Coming up are "Yank! A WWII Love Story" and "To Kill a Mockingbird." It'll be interesting to see if the success of "Anne Frank" carries over to the obscure musical "Yank!," which had a respected Off-Broadway run six years ago, but hasn't yet made it to Broadway.
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "A round-up of Bradenton-area arts and entertainment news ."