Watch: Make Your Own Holiday Memories

Jodi Klusacek, an officer with the Oak Forest Green Steps Commission and distributor of eco-friendly Shaklee products, shows how you can turn old tin canisters and empty mason jars into new holiday keepsakes in a Patch video.

The idea of going green for the holidays is one Oak Forest Green Steps Commission officer Jodi Klusacek embraced long ago. She now shares green tips and healthy lifestyle choices regularly on her Nature's Resources Facebook page. And she shares a couple of tips here in a Patch video to help you prepare of the holidays. Why not turn an old tin canister into a Christmas gift box? Or illuminate a bathroom with a scented mason jar light?

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SouthScene

Lucille Ball, 'Sexual Perversity' and Hot Jazz Mark Eclectic May Arts Scene

This week featuring events on the South Side, Chicago Heights, Frankfort, Joliet, Oak Lawn, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, Park Forest, South Holland and University Park.

Beverly Theatre Guild presents Leading Ladies, a Ken Ludwig farce about two down-on-their-luck Shakespearean actors who read a newspaper story about an elderly and ailing woman who has been unable to find her daughter's sons, Max and Steve. The wealthy woman wants to locate her grandsons so she can bequeath each a very healthy sum in her will. As in millions. And that's where it starts. The actors put on their best performances pretending to be be Max and Steve, and of course, romantic complications add additional layers of wackiness to this wacky play.  When: 8 p.m., May 6-7; 2 p.m., May 8 Where: Baer Theatre, Morgan Park Academy, 2153 W. 111th St., Chicago Cost: $20 Tickets and information: 773-284-8497 and by e-mail to …

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SouthScene

Dorothy and the Wizard, Anna and the King Set Stages for Exotic Places

This week featuring events from Chicago Heights, Frankfort, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Park Forest and South Holland.

Beverly Arts Center presents  the exclusive premiere of an original cabaret musical, Last Night at the Piano Bar, based on the real life exploits of piano bar artist Dan Gillogly, who also co-wrote the script with Jeff Award-winning Nate Herman.  The musical tells the story of one night in the lives of four characters in a North Side lounge. There's Frank, a tough city worker who likes expensive clothes; Grace, a former beauty queen now known for her wifely housekeeping in a television ad; Rhonda, the brash bartender; and Jimmy, a wide-eyed kid from Iowa who before this night could never have imagined this big city adventure. When: 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, April 29-30; 3 p.m. Sunday, May 1. Where: Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th St. Cost…

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SouthScene

Blues, Bhutan, Bright New Stars Buzz Southland

This week featuring events from Alsip, Beverly, Chicago Heights, Flossmoor, Oak Forest, Orland Park, Palos Hills, Park Forest, Tinley Park and South Holland.

Tracy Smith, adored by cable television fans who gravitate to the Comedy Central, continues her stop at Riddles Comedy Club with four shows this weekend during which she is bound to recount the adventures of the single life and more, all with her come-hither blend of comedy and cute. When: 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. shows tonight (April 15) and April 16 Where: Riddles Comedy Club, 5055 W. 111th St., Alsip Cost: $5 for 8 p.m. shows, $12.50 for 10:30 p.m. performances Ticket information: 708-422-5055, www.myridriddlescomedyclub.com and at the door  Born in Detroit but with "Delta blues-filled blood," John Lee Hooker Jr, son of legendary blues man John Lee Hooker,"was exposed to the life of blues from a young age," the younger man's official bio …

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SouthScene

Roads on Southland Stages Lead to Dublin, San Jose and the Old Ball Game

Chicago Heights, Flossmoor, Frankfort, Oak Forest, Oak Lawn, Orland Park, Palos Hills, Tinley Park and more turn spotlights on for entertainment in the coming week.

Mr. Blotto heads to Beverly Arts Center with its distinct blend of every kind of rock music imaginable, from hard rock to country, to blues-rock to good old rock 'n' roll. When: 8 p.m. Friday, April 8 Where: Beverly Arts Center, 2407 W. 111th Street Cost: $12, $10 members Information: 773-445-3838 and beverlyartcenter.org It’s fun. It’s tragic. It’s cheaper than cheap. The Drama Group presents a free and informal play reading of George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House. “Written between 1916 and 1917, Heartbreak House is a telling indictment of the generation responsible for the First World War," states the theater troupe’s information notes. "With its bold combination of high farce and bitter tragedy, Shaw’s work remains an uncannily …

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Big Singers, Big Dreams and One Big City

For EPCHS choir students, traveling to New York in March gave them perspective on performing, life and tragedy in America's biggest city.

The Big Apple, the City that Never Sleeps, the Center of the Universe, as the nicknames go. New York, a city as diverse as the hundreds of cultures that inhabit it, where neighborhoods buzz like sparks flying from the subway tracks and where the concert choir of Evergreen Park Community High School recently found new inspiration to sing. “It was incredible,” said soprano Rebecca Przeslicke, “even though we were really busy. I'd been wanting to go there forever.” From March 19-23, choir director Melanie Michalak and a handful of chaperones led 28 of the high school's choir students through renowned New York musical institutions Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Juilliard School and the Theater District, where they saw Broadway shows…

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SouthScene

'Famous Fives,' Emerald City, Peter Noone, Extraordinary Art Shows Color the Coming Week

This week with events in Chicago Heights, Frankfort, Joliet, Mokena, Oak Lawn, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Park Forest, Tinley Park and University Park.

Union Street Gallery unveils a new, national juried exhibit, Word and Numbers, with a “smart, city gallery feel," according to gallery information. Union Street Gallery exhibits always are free. When: A reception is 6-9 p.m. March 4. Show runs March 2 through April 2. Gallery hours are noon-5 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, noon-6 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Where: Union Street Gallery, 1527 Otto Blvd. Cost: Free More info: Call 708-754-2601. Under the direction of celebrated guest conductor Victor Yampolsky, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra continues its performance season with Famous Fives, a program of Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D-minor. Read our preview story by…

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Lorraine Swanson

10:09 am on Friday, March 4, 2011

I saw Peter Noone in concert last year. Yes, I am old. He put on a great show. He's very witty and still has the pipes.   more ›

SouthScene

Primo Jazz, Saucy Improv, Battlefield Ballads, Buffett Tribute Shape Stages in Southland

Chicago Heights Jazz Fest, Battlefield Balladeers, sex in Palos and much turn South Suburbs into huge stage.

Billed as a “high energy show exploding with style and attitude,” the World Famous Afrodisiacs take over the Beverly Art Center stage this weekend with music, dance, humor and for sure, a tribute to the disco era. When: 8 p.m. Feb. 19 Where: Beverly Art Center, 2407 W. 111th St. Cost: $20 Tickets and information: 773-445-3838 Beverly Theatre Guild presents Cadillac, a new play by Chicagoan Bill Jepson. The drama focuses on ethical struggles a car salesman faces on the last business, as in sales, day of the month. When: 8 p.m. Feb. 18 and 19, 2 p.m. Feb. 20 Where: Morgan Park Academy Arts Center, 2153 W. 111th St. Cost: $20 Tickets and information: 773-284-8497 Don’t look for any golfers at the clubhouse, but musicians Vince Clark & Friends…

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SouthScene

Lyle Lovett, Weird Women, Sexy Seniors Top Region's Marquees

Lovett and Hiatt go acoustic, seamstress tales expose world of struggle, cool jazz and eclectic tantalize the senses at venues throughout the Southland.

St. Xavier University’s SXU Gallery features an exhibit of works by visual artist Nikkole Huss who will talk about her exhibit, Permeable Perimeters: Needle-Felted Wood and Encaustic on Panel, at a Feb. 9 reception. Huss is inspired by photographs of Earth and outer space phenomena. “By gazing far beyond the human eye’s ability to see … it is possible to perceive the impossible …,” she say in her artist’s statement. Where: St. Xavier University’s SXU Gallery, 3700 W. 103rd St. When: Exhibit runs from Feb. 3 to Feb. 24, reception 3:30 p.m. Feb. 9; gallery hours -10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday Cost: Free; Information: 773-298-3081 and www.sxu.edu Charles Martin and Indigo Jazz take Stony Creek Clubhouse …

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SouthScene

Broken Hearts, Visual Arts, Opera Smarts Blanket Southland

Patch.com covers yours arts, entertainment options as SouthScene expands into new territory.

St. Xavier University’s SXU Gallery features an exhibit of works by visual artist Nikkole Huss beginning next week. The artist will give a talk about her exhibit, Permeable Perimeters: Needle-Felted Wood and Encaustic on Panel, at a Feb. 9 reception. In her artist’s statement, Huss says she is inspired by photographs of Earth and outer space phenomena from various sources including the Hubble Space Telescope as well as her own telescope. “By gazing far beyond the human eye’s ability to see … it is possible to perceive the impossible …” Where: St. Xavier University’s SXU Gallery, 3700 W. 103rd St. When: Exhibit runs from Feb. 3 to Feb. 24, reception 3:30 p.m. Feb. 9; gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.…

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