Arts and leisure digest: Take one

Bertoni Gallery hosts Bill Perry Day on July 31 SUGAR LOAF — Bertoni Gallery will host fourth annual Bill Perry Day at the Bertoni Gallery Sculpture Garden on Kings Highway in Sugar Loaf on Sunday, July 31, from 1 to 5 p.m. The program is part of the gallery’s “Sundays in July” free music festival held every Sunday in July. The day will be filled with performances by Barry Adleman, Evan Teatum, Reddan Brothers Band, Dan Brother Band, and a special performance by the “Bill Perry All Stars” featuring many musicians who toured with Perry, including: Dean Scala, Papa John, Jermy Baum, Gil Cruz, Eric Winter and guests. Perry was an internationally acclaimed blues-rock guitarist who lived in the Chester area most of his life, until his death in 2007. Bertoni Gallery and Barry Adleman from Music For Humanity have joined forces to present the fourth Music For Humanity Bill Perry Scholarship Award in his memory. The scholarship is awarded to a local high school senior who has shown excellence in the field of music, and to encourage the recipients’ ongoing pursuit of their music education. The scholarship recipient (as well as two other Music For Humanity Scholarship Award Winners) will be the guests of honor on this day, and will be presented the award during the ceremony in the sculpture garden. This event will start at 12 p.m. This event is a fund raiser for the scholarship program. To view the full schedule of performances and times, visit the upcoming events section on www.bertonigallery.com. For more information, to volunteer or to make a tax-deductible donation call 469-0993. Kimball, Dale and Scheuermann Farm to be part of Black Dirt Feast PINE ISLAND — The Black Dirt Feast, to be held on Tuesday, Aug. 2, will feature pottery designed and produced by potters Andrea Carr Kimball and Marilyn Dale, to be filled with fresh flowers from the Scheuermann Farm & Greenhouses in Pine Island. Each year the feast celebrates the collaboration between chefs and the farmers who produce the food used in the five-course dinner, Tuscan-style seating on the great lawn at the Scheuermann Farm. “We are excited to be able to have Andrea and Marilyn creating the ceramic vases this year,” said co-chair Sondra Hall. “Both artists do extraordinary work.” Kimball is a potter known for her work in wood fired stoneware and porcelain. She built and maintains a noborigama kiln in Warwick and is a partner in a long fire anagama kiln in upstate Columbia County. Dale is an educator and studio potter. Organizers said she believes “art is a means of communication. It exists somewhere between the physical and the spiritual self, and, like the fire that bakes the clay, it has an intelligence all its own.” Included in this year’s volunteer staff will be several students from the BOCES culinary program, who will be working with several of the region’s top chefs in the preparation of a five-course dinner. The al fresco fund raiser, organized by the Pine Island Chamber of Commerce, will benefit the local community. Tickets are available by calling 258-4176. 'The Hobbit’ comes to Sugar Loaf on Aug. 5-6 Sugar Loaf — The Kings Youth Theater summer workshop is presenting its own production of J. R. R. Tolkien’s, The Hobbit on Aug. 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. at the Lycian Centre in Sugar Loaf. The Hobbit is the first of the Middle Earth stories penned by Tolkien and follows the quest of home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins to win a share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. Bilbo’s journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into darker, deeper territory. The story is told in the form of an episodic quest, and includes wizards, dwarves, elves, wolves, spiders, eagles and a dragon. By accepting the disreputable, romantic, and adventurous side of his nature and applying his wits and common sense, Bilbo develops a new level of maturity, and wisdom. Bilbo faces trials which again and again force him to look deep inside himself for the strength and resourcefulness he needs to complete the task expected of him. The Kings Youth Theater Summer Production Workshop has been working in movement, vocals technique, rhythm and text to develop this version of The Hobbit. Paul Ellis, director of the Kings Youth Theatre conducts the Summer Workshop and is directing The Hobbit. The cast includes: Siobhan Hill, Sarah Wilson, Isaac Kiernan, Anna Salas, Sean O’Brien, Maylin Morales, Chris Jones, Kawani Waynick, Nikki Alessandrino, Mackenzie Martin, Marcella Martinez, Erica Pikul, Morgan Gray, Paige Dillon, Austin Brock, Thomas Driscoll, Kevin Raleigh, Marissa Reuter, Georgia Mottola, Karina Volk and Andrew Tejedor. This production is the culmination of a year long project produced during several workshops. The project began last winter with a group of eight students and director Paul Ellis. The group spent the winter and early spring assembling pieces for inclusion in a script. That resulted in a finished draft which was used this summer as a guide for the twenty student actors that will be performing the finished piece. Performances are at Aug. 5 and 6 at 8 p.m. “on the Wharf” Theatre by the Lake at the Lycian Centre. Tickets are $10 each and may be purchased by calling 469-2287. 'Forks Over Knives’ will screen at Downing Film Center on Sunday Newburgh — “Forks Over Knives” will have three screenings at the Downing Film Center starting on Sunday, July 31. “Forks Over Knives is a film that may save your lives,” said critic Roger Ebert in his review of this very timely documentary film. The film examines the claim that most, if not all, of the so called “diseases of affluence” that afflict people can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting the present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major story line traces the personal journeys of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional scientist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. Screenings will take place on Sunday, July 31 at 5 p.m., Monday, Aug. 1 at 7:30 p.m., and Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 2 p.m. Regular admission prices will be in effect: general, $8.50, seniors and students, $7, members and children, $6. This film is rated PG. Downing Film Center is located at 19 Front St., in Newburgh. For more information and tickets, call 561-3686 or 800-974-8592, or visit www.downingfilmcenter.com.