Arts

Chuck Benedict If You Go WHAT: "Winter Choral Celebration" by Glendale High School music department. WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday. WHERE: Glendale High School Concert Auditorium, 1440 E. Broadway. CONDUCTOR: Grace Sheldon-Williams. TICKETS: $5, at the box office. "The world has changed." That's a cliche, of course, but look around. The world was changed by the printing press, the horseless carriage, electronic communications and by immunizations that have prolonged millions of lives.

A sad curtain fall for Glendale The relative lack of arts and culture in Glendale has recently received attention in a variety of letters on this page. One of the preeminent sources of theater art in Southern California is the repertory theater A Noise Within right here in Glendale. The three plays performed in this fall’s season were Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Nash’s “The Rainmaker” and Dickens’ “Oliver Twist.” In my humble opinion, this was absolutely the best three-play series A Noise Within has produced since my wife and I started attending more than 10 years ago. And the critics seemed to agree, with one reviewer writing that the “Hamlet” portrayal was just about the best he had ever seen.

The spring semester at Glendale Community College begins Tuesday, Feb. 19. Open telephone registration for college credit courses will continue through Feb. 13. For application and registration information, call 240-1000, ext. 5910 or visit the college Web site at www.glendale.cc.ca.us. The application for admission may be submitted online. Taking college credit classes may lead to a certificate of completion in a specific program, an Associate in Art or Associate in Science degree or transfer to a four-year college or university.

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Downtown Glendale's future looks vibrant and ideal for shopping, dining, working, living and entertaining, according to a plan presented to city commissioners Monday. Commissioners from the city's Arts and Culture, Historic Preservation, Parks and Recreation, Planning and Transportation and Parking commissions got a snapshot of that vision Monday at a special presentation of the downtown specific plan and its associated draft environmental impact report, which was made public on Aug. 18. "This was intended to be an introduction to what the plan says as well as what the [environmental impact report]

Auditions for the Glendale Community College spring theatre productions will be held on Saturday, Feb. 25 and Sunday, Feb. 26 in the GCC Auditorium. All auditions are by cold readings. The productions are "Something's Missing," a new play by Ken Gray that will open April 27 and Noel Coward's "Hay Fever," which opens April 27. Auditions will be from 6 to 10 p.m. on Feb. 25 and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Feb. 26. Call backs are Feb. 28. The college is located at 1500 N. Verdugo Road.

Glendale has a new organization of volunteers whose dynamic leadership, energetic work, and impressive commitment and purpose are nothing short of astonishing and worthy of high praise and strong support. The name of the new group in town is the Glendale Educational Foundation. Its purpose and reason for existence is to support and enrich the educational experiences of children in the Glendale schools. Their focus this year is to raise $100,000 to provide arts and music programs for elementary students in the Glendale schools.

Gary Moskowitz Shmavon Shmavonian is not interested in the darker side of life. Since he was a boy, the painter has created art that, to him, represents his passion for joy, peace and happiness. Shmavonian was invited by the city of Glendale to visit so he could dedicate his painting, "Eternity," to the city in May. The painting, created in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is in the city manager's conference room but will soon be moved to the lobby at City Hall.

Jerry Lane "The world is so full of a number of things/I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." My wife repeats those words of Robert Louis Stevenson all the time -- and I think he might well have said it of Southern California. There is so much to do here! A week or so ago, we drove down to Laguna Beach for the Sawdust Festival, the Art Affair and the Festival of the Arts. The weather was perfect. We had a beautiful lunch and then fed our souls on all of the wonderful artwork, stopping to talk to the artists and reminisce on past fairs with friends at their stalls.

The St. Bede Drama Club celebrates its exciting first year with a fall production to be held Friday, Nov. 18, at 7 p.m. in the St. Bede Parish Hall. The nearly 60 actors from grades 1 to 8 will present three family-friendly one-act plays, Stone Soup, Suzie and the Magic Pebble and The Apple, under the direction of DeeDee Montesanto-Fried, an 18-year film industry veteran. Montesanto-Fried and other parent volunteers created the St. Bede Drama Club to provide St. Bede school children a fun and educational theater arts experience.