Guitarist to perform at BU

Guitarist Stephen Mattingly will perform at Bloomsburg University on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 7:30 p.m. in Haas Center for the Arts, room 166. Mattingly is active as a soloist and a member of the Tantalus Quartet.  

Get ready to see some dance and song

Bloomsburg University's Celebrity Artist Series is bringing "Dancing with the Stars," "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance?" finalists to campus on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 8 pm in Haas Center for the Arts, Mitrani Hall. Tickets are $45 for adults and $22 for children and BU students.

The show "Ballroom With A Twist" is an evening of entertainment for the entire family highlighted by stunning costumes, fantastic music and breathtaking performances, directed and choreographed by international world champion, Emmy nominated, “Dancing With the Stars” Louis van Amstel. This show will feature dancers Chelsie Hightower and Dmitry Chaplin.

And several of favorite “American Idol” finalists will join the bill with their powerhouse hit songs. If you love watching the cha-cha rattle on the television screen, getting up close and live beneath the fringe and sequins is a whole other ballgame you will want to experience.

Upcoming shows include:

• Nov .15 — The Graduate 
• Dec. 6 — Sara Gazarek 
• Feb. 7 — Project Trio Feb. 22 — Christopher O’Riley 
• March 7 — American Idiot 
• March 29 — Swan Lake 
• April 13 — Pedrito Martinez

A look at life "Under the Sea"

The film Under the Sea, narrated by Jim Carrey, will be shown Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 7 pm, at the Moose Exchange, 203 W. Main St. The screening is sponsored by BU's Campus Green Initiative.

The film examines the impact of global climate change on the ocean wilderness as award-winning director/cinematographer Howard Hall (Into the Deep, Deep Sea 3D) travels from South Australia to the Indo-Pacific to teach viewers the importance of keeping our oceans clean for future generations.

Claire Watkins to give reading at Moose Monday

Short story writer and essayist Claire Vaye Watkins will give a reading Monday, Oct. 21, at 7 pm at the Moose Exchange, 203 W. Main Street, Bloomsburg.

Watkins is the author of Battleborn, which was named a best book of 2012 by the San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Time Out New York, Flavorwire, and NPR.org. Battleborn (Riverhead Books) also won the Story Prize, the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Silver Pen Award from the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.

In 2012, Claire was selected as one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35.” Currently a visiting assistant professor at Princeton University, Claire is also the co-director, with Derek Palacio, of the Mojave School, a free creative writing workshop for teenagers in rural Nevada.

The reading is sponsored by the Bloomsburg University Center for Visual and Performing Arts and the Big Dog Reading Series.

A choral concert. A look at commune life.

Bloomsburg University’s Fall Choral Concert, featuring the Women’s Choral Ensemble, Husky Singers and Concert Choir, will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, in First Presbyterian Church, 345 Market St., Bloomsburg. The concert is open to the public free of charge.

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The Friends of the Bloomsburg University Library Association is presenting its Fall Program this Sunday afternoon, October 20, at 2 p.m. in the Andruss Library Schweiker Room. The guest speaker is Melvyn Stiriss, the author of “Voluntary Peasants: Birth of the Farm Commune.” Stiriss spent the 1970s on a commune in Tennessee, and will relate his experiences on the farm and writing the book, the first in a four-part series. Here is the link to information on the book:www.voluntarypeasants.com/ It should be an interesting presentation, so please be sure to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

A parade, a merchant and Motown

Bloomsburg School District and Bloomsburg University will celebrate Homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 12. The parade begins at 11 a.m. parade on Lightstreet, then on to Main and Market streets to Town Park. This year’s homecoming theme is Nashville music City, U.S.A.

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The Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble is staging Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice through Oct. 20. Director Andrew Hubatsek sets the play in a kind of gangster milieu.

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A reception for artist Sage Dawson will be held from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in Bloomsburg University’s Haas Gallery of Art. Dawson will lecture at 3 p.m. For information, contact Scott Roper, sroper@bloomu.edu.

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Motown and More, featuring Souled Out, will perform Friday, Oct. 11, at  8 p.m. in Bloomsburg University’s Haas Center for the Arts, Mitrani Hall as part of the Celebrity Artist Series. Reproducing the classic sounds of the ’70s soul era, the group will perform hits from Motown and soul legends including Earth, Wind & Fire, the Commodores and Tower of Power. Tickets are $35 for regular admission and $17 for BU students and children. For tickets or more information, visit www.bloomu.edu/CAS or call the box office at 570-389-4409.