Arts & Culture - Staff Picks

 

Best chance to watch artists in action

Winter Park Paint Out
polasek.org/wppo

Each spring, a new crop of plein air painters pops up on street corners all over Winter Park. They capture the scenes around them in oils, pastels and watercolors for a week, and as they finish their works, they're hung in the Albin Polasek Museum gallery. All week long you can check back in at the Polasek as the gallery fills up with new paintings, all of which are available for purchase once the show is over.

 

Best showbiz buddy act

Fringe Festival's Michael Marinaccio and George Wallace
orlandofringe.org

Theater history is filled with famous teams: Comden & Green, Lerner & Loewe, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. In 2012, the buddy buzz was all about the new duo directing our area's longest-running international theater festival. Orlando's own arts administration answer to Abbott & Costello – new Fringe Festival producer Michael Marinaccio and returning general manager George Wallace – turned out to be a terrific twosome in their first festival together. After receiving rave reviews for maximizing attendance while minimizing angst, we hope to see this double act treading the boards for seasons to come.

 

Best fringe festival multitasker

Sarah Lockard
orlandofringe.org

Performing in one Fringe production is exhausting enough, but each year a handful of hardy souls appear in multiple shows. Our nod for "hardest-working actress of Fringe 2012" goes to Sarah Lockard, who featured in three different shows – Skill Focus: Burlesque, Cannibal! The Musical and Connected: An Interactive Experience – at three separate venues. (And for bonus points, she showed her boobs in two out of the three!) Lockard appeared onstage in a total of 21 performances over 13 days, which is more shows than all but the hardest-core Fringers even attend.

 

Best I-Drive attraction upgrade

Titanic: The Experience
7324 International Drive
407-248-1166
titanictheexperience.com

Orlando's peripatetic Titanic exhibit has had nearly as fraught a history as its historic namesake, bouncing from the now-bulldozed Mercado to the Orlando Science Center before settling back on International Drive. Just in time for the original tragedy's 100th anniversary, the museum-style attraction received its best addition ever: dozens of authentic artifacts recovered from the shipwreck itself, including an impressive slab of its twisted steel hull. An auction of the exhibit owner's assets planned for April was put on hold, but you should try to see these fascinating fragments while they're still around.

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