You can get your arts fix while taking family/friends to some holiday events. These won’t break your budget:
- Kaleidoscope Trio at the Newport Beach Public Library on December 11. Essentially, this is a chamber ensemble performing selections from The Nutcracker. It’s FREEEEE! Get there early because you can’t see the performers if you are more than 10 rows beyond the library stage.
- Various musical events at the Sawdust Festival Winter Fantasy. Admission is $8. What inspired me to share this are some artists on the entertainment calendar. There is plenty of quality holiday musical fare, but there also high quality Americana from some local singer/songwriters. Michael Ubaldini, for one. He performs on Dec. 18. Michael is known as The RocknRoll Poet. He is compared to Bruce Springsteen, Jack Kerouac and Hank Williams. What I compare him to when reading his lyrics and his ramblings: Tom Waits, but without the growl. Michael is a real American troubadour, the most original songwriter you’ve never heard of and one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
- The Nutcracker, performed by The Festival Ballet and impeccable guest artists. There are local budget Nutcrackers and the expensive American Ballet Theater version at Segerstrom. Festival Ballet gives you the best of both worlds! Festival Ballet corps of dancers come with impressive credentials and hail from top tier companies. The guest artists are at the top of the ballet game and have dazzled me in past performances, especially Maria Kochetkova and Yuan Yuan Tan of the San Francisco Ballet. The big surprise for me this year is Irina Dvorovenko. I have not seen her on stage, but I have seen her on screen in such TV dramas as Flesh & Bone and Power. Let me tell you…she made the transition from dance to acting very well. She retired from dance but will return for this series. No way will I miss it! Can you blame me?
