Entertianment News & Notes

Stock Food Bank

Omaha arts organizations are again teaming with ConAgra for a drive to support the Food Bank of Omaha.

Omaha Performing Arts, the Omaha Symphony and Opera Omaha will collect canned food and other nonperishable items from patrons at the Holland Performing Arts Center and the Orpheum Theater, starting today and continuing at all performances through Jan. 1.

Film fest deadline

The Omaha Film Festival has begun the process of selecting films and screenplays for its 2010 event, which will run March 6 to 14. The deadline for submissions is Friday, and festival officials have been looking at early entries as they winnow the field for competition.

The festival has moved into offices at North Sea Films, 2626 Harney St., and is working on upgrading its Web site, www.omahafilmfestival.org, hoping to relaunch it soon.

A benefit cabaret

New York City actor Nick Masson will host a cabaret as a benefit for Lara Marsh, artistic coordinator of the Nebraska Theatre Caravan at the Omaha Community Playhouse.

Masson plays Bob Cratchit in one of the caravan’s two national tour companies of “A Christmas Carol.” Marsh, who has cystic fibrosis, needs a double lung transplant.

The cabaret, at DJ’s Dugout in Miracle Hills Plaza, 636 N. 114th St., kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15. Tickets, on sale at the door, are $20 for an individual, $30 for a couple and $40 for a family. Silent auction items also will be available.

The show will showcase caravan actors from New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and Kansas City.

Reservations can be made at singyourlungsforlara@gmail.com or 347-684-0158.

A hand in costuming

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” the Broadway musical that opens its national tour today at the Orpheum Theater, has an Omaha tie.

Kathleen Leary, a 1994 graduate of Mercy High School, worked as an associate costume designer on the show in 2005 and 2006, when “White Christmas” played in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston leading up to its November 2008 Broadway opening. She was hired by the show’s costume designer, Carrie Robbins.

By the time the show hit Broadway, Leary had moved on to free-lance costume jobs with Stella Adler Studios, Personal Space Theatrics and other New York City theater outlets. She has recently moved to Washington, D.C., where she is costume designer for St. Alban’s School and the National Cathedral School.

Leary earned a bachelor’s degree in technical theater from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and a master’s of fine arts in costume design from Temple University in Philadelphia.

Apply for arts fest

The Omaha Summer Arts Festival is now accepting artist applications for its 36th annual event, which takes place June 25, 26 and 27. This year, the festival has transitioned to an online jury selection system. Information about applications and digital submissions is at www.summerarts.org. The deadline is Jan. 20

Omaha premiere

“Lovely, Still,” a movie directed and written by Omahan Nik Fackler and filmed in Omaha in late 2007, will have its Omaha premiere as part of Friday’s grand opening of the new Marcus Midtown Cinema. The movie will run for one week only at Midtown Crossing, 3201 Farnam St.

As part of the premiere, Fackler and Oscar-winner Martin Landau, who co-stars with Ellen Burstyn in “Lovely, Still,” will appear at 8:30 p.m. Friday evening to take questions from the audience of the 9:15 p.m. screening.

Tickets are $10 and available at www.marcustheatres.com or the cinema box office.

Auditions

“Noises Off,” Bellevue Little Theatre, 6 p.m. Nov. 15 and 7 p.m. Nov. 16 at the theater, 203 W. Mission Ave. in Bellevue. Show runs Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Information: 731-0610.

— Compiled by Bob Fischbach and John Pitcher