january 30
Miami RV Show: Consider it an anthropological expedition to a nomadic culture in which the highest value is attached to mobility (with comfort running a close second). It's the wonderful world of recreational vehicles, as celebrated by the first annual Miami RV Show, taking place this weekend at Pro Player Park (2269 NW 199th St.). You'll encounter a vast assemblage of towable and motorized RVs ranging in price from $4000 to $200,000, as well as the people who are inexplicably drawn to them -- those folks who have embraced an extreme version of America's love affair with highways and vehicles by living on the road. Admission is six dollars for adults, free for kids under sixteen. Show hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. today and Sunday, and 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday. Call 800-330-7882.
South Beach Stories: Stella Blue opened recently as a restaurant and live-music venue just off Lincoln Road in Miami Beach (1661 Meridian Ave.) Tonight the club presents its first theatrical production as actress Susan Murray performs her one-woman show South Beach Stories. Murray, who has performed in Chicago comedy clubs, with New York's Public Theatre, and with local troupes such as the ACME Theatre Company, takes on a series of comical characters -- including a party girl, a precocious ten-year-old, and an elderly night clerk -- in vignettes that offer a slice of life from Miami Beach. Admission is three dollars. Showtime is 11:00 p.m. Call 532-4788.
friday
january 31
Miami Film Festival: Reels spin, audiences gasp, and critics focus their attention for ten days as the fourteenth annual Miami Film Festival takes over the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts (174 E. Flagler St.). The festival opens tonight at 7:30 p.m. with Australian director Mark Joffe's Cosi, and continues through February 9 with 31 feature-length films and 5 shorts from 14 nations. The festival also features a series of lectures at the Gusman Center and at Miami-Dade Community College's Wolfson Campus (300 NE Second Ave.). Admission to all screenings is $7 (except for the opening- and closing-night films, which cost $25); all lectures are free unless otherwise noted. See our "Calendar Listings" for a complete schedule of events, or call 377-FILM.
Burn This: The EDGE/Theatre (405 Espanola Way, Miami Beach) presents Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson's Burn This, opening tonight at 8:00 p.m. The play follows a love triangle between a choreographer, her wealthy, successful athlete fiance, and a passionate man who abruptly enters her life. Tickets for tonight's benefit opening gala cost $20, with proceeds going to the People With AIDS Coalition. Tickets for all additional shows cost $12, with performances Friday through Sunday at 8:00 p.m. through February 23. Call 531-6083.
Lorna Simpson: New York City-based artist Lorna Simpson creates a site-specific installation for the Miami Art Museum (101 W. Flagler St.), opening today and remaining on view through April 6. Simpson takes black-and-white photographs of urban and country landscapes and interiors that conspicuously lack human figures, then silk-screens them onto large felt panels accompanied by ambiguous, unconventionally punctuated texts that read like excerpts from longer stories. The result is a voyeuristic view into public places where people could rendezvous for sexual liaisons. Simpson will be on hand tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. for a conversation about her works with Whitney Museum of American Art associate curator Thelma Golden. Admission is five dollars for adults, free for kids under twelve (also free after 5:00 p.m. on Thursday). Museum hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday (Thursday till 9:00 p.m.) and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Call 375-3000.
Everglades Seafood Festival: Sink your teeth into the tastiest catches of the day at the 24th annual Everglades Seafood Festival at McLeod Park in funky old Everglades City (travel west on I-75 or U.S. 41 to State Road 29 south). Festgoers can savor stone crab claws, fried fish, gator nuggets, and a variety of international seafood dishes. The festival also features live music by Nashville's David Ball (tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.) and the Bellamy Brothers (Sunday at 3:00 p.m.), plus carnival rides and more than 150 arts and crafts booths. Admission is free. Festival hours are 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. tonight, 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. tomorrow, and 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday. Call 941-695-4100.
Miami RV Show: See Thursday.
saturday
february 1
Florida Renaissance Festival: Enter through castle gates at T.Y. Park (3300 N. Park Rd., Hollywood) and travel back 500 years to the days of jousting knights, strolling minstrels, and bodiced wenches at the fifth annual Florida Renaissance Festival, kicking off today and continuing for three consecutive weekends through February 23. This re-creation of a sixteenth-century village fair features costumed entertainers, including the Flaming Idiots jesters, the King's Royal Falconer, the Beggars of M'Earth theater troupe (they perform literary masterpieces while covered in mud), the Royal Chessmen human chess game, and a historical drama about the royal courts of England and Spain (with King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn). Get a taste of yore while swigging some ale and munching on turkey legges, steak on a stake, meat pies, and the King's nuts. Enjoy a human-powered carousel and other rides. And take a little piece of history home with you -- more than 100 artisans peddle handmade wares. Admission is $11 for adults, $5 for kids ages five to twelve (free for kiddies under five). Fair hours are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday through February 23 (plus Monday, February 17). Call 800-3-REN-FES.
International Miami Map Fair: Antique map dealers, collectors, and experts from around the globe take you on a trip through the ancient and modern worlds at the fourth annual International Miami Map Fair, today and tomorrow at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (101 W. Flagler St.). The event features lectures and workshops on map collecting, including a panel discussion on what to look for when buying an antique map, plus a keynote address by The Mapping of America coauthor Seymour Schwartz. Participants are invited to bring their maps for an expert appraisal. Admission to all events is $25 each day ($45 for a two-day pass); admission to the dealers' marketplace is four dollars for adults, two for kids under thirteen. Show hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. today and noon to 5:00 p.m. tomorrow. Call 375-1492.
Ojodun -- A Black History Celebration: The Center for African Cultural Studies hosts its first annual Black History Celebration today, beginning at 10:00 a.m. at the African Folklore Village (12308 SW 224th St.) with a series of musical and dance performances, speeches, and presentations. Chuck Davis, founder and artistic director of the African American Dance Ensemble, will perform his original choreographies; African village leaders Oba Oseijeman Adefummi I and Chief Omotosi Eluyemi will speak; and local musicians, singers, and dancers will perform throughout the day. In addition, dozens of craftspersons and vendors will offer traditional African clothing, art, and foods. Admission is ten dollars for adults, five for children under twelve. Call 891-3039.
Miami RV Show: See Thursday.
Burn This: See Friday.
Lorna Simpson: See Friday.
Everglades Seafood Festival: See Friday.
sunday
february 2
Naked Came the Manatee: It took thirteen local authors to create such a novel, and this baker's dozen of literary talents celebrates publication with a book-signing event today at 2:00 p.m. at Books & Books (933 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach). Carl Hiaasen, Elmore Leonard, Dave Barry, James W. Hall, Edna Buchanan, Les Standiford, Paul Levine, Brian Antoni, Tananarive Due, John Dufresne, Vicki Hendricks, Carolina Hospital, and Evelyn Mayerson will all be on hand to meet fans and answer questions about this quirky, romantic, and chaotic Florida suspense thriller. Admission is free; tickets (available with book purchase) are required to have your book autographed. Call 532-3222.
The Emperor Jones: Cinema Vortex continues its series of milestone films today at noon at the Alliance Cinema (927 Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach) with director Dudley Murphy's 1933 adaption of Eugene O'Neill's play about a poor black Southerner who becomes an emperor. The great Paul Robeson stars in the title role; Murphy added entire sections to O'Neill's material, including songs and realistic details considered by some critics to be the best parts of the film. Admission is four dollars. Call 531-8504.
Miami RV Show: See Thursday.
Burn This: See Friday.
Lorna Simpson: See Friday.
Everglades Seafood Festival: See Friday.
Florida Renaissance Festival: See Saturday.
International Miami Map Fair: See Saturday.
monday
february 3
William Cordova: The works of Peruvian-born, Miami- and Chicago-based artist William Cordova look like mysterious blueprints to unknown worlds. Cordova's textured canvases incorporate wry text in English and Spanish and cryptic numbers, measurements, and drawings into minimalist paintings in rich, organic colors, layered with materials such as type-correction liquid and surgical tape. Cordova says the works represent "a tug of war between emotion and logic." An exhibition of works by Cordova at the Espanola Way Art Center (405 Espanola Way, second floor, Miami Beach) opens tonight with a reception at 6:00 p.m. and runs through February 15. Admission is free. Gallery hours are subject to change; call 673-6248 for details.
tuesday
february 4
West Side The Sharks and the Jets dance into the Jackie Gleason Theater of the Performing Arts (1700 Washington Ave., Miami Beach) in Alan Johnson's staging of the original West Side Story, running through February 9. The collaboration of four legends (director-choreographer Jerome Robbins, librettist Arthur Laurents, composer Leonard Bernstein, and lyricist Stephen Sondheim), this musical has retained its relevance since debuting exactly four decades ago. Based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the timeless love story is set against the backdrop of ethnic gang warfare in the streets of New York (the recent film version of Romeo and Juliet, in fact, bears more of a resemblance to West Side Story than anything else, with its ethnically diverse casting and gritty urban setting). Tickets range in price from $31 to $46. Performances run Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 7:00 p.m., with 2:00 matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Call 673-7300.
Man of La Mancha: Robert Goulet lends his rich voice to the role of Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote as he stars in this five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway classic, opening tonight at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts (201 SW Fifth St., Fort Lauderdale). After it opened in 1965 at Lincoln Center, Man of La Mancha ran for more than 2000 performances on Broadway and spawned the memorable hit song, "The Impossible Dream." With book by Dale Wasserman, lyrics by Joe Darion, and music by Mitch Leigh, the musical follows the windmill-chasing Quixote (and his trusty sidekick Sancho Panza) on his quest for the love of the beautiful Dulcinea. Tickets range in price from $35 to $47. Performances run Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m., with 2:00 matinees Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday through February 16. Call 954-462-0222.
Lorna Simpson: See Friday.
wednesday
february 5
Les Standiford: Award-winning author and director of the creative writing program at Florida International University Les Standiford crafts another poetic page-turner with the fourth installment in his John Deal crime series, Deal on Ice. In this thriller Standiford's hero becomes embroiled in a battle with a right-wing religious fanatic bent on controlling a worldwide media empire after his friend, the unassuming owner of an independent Miami bookstore (gee, wonder who that could be?), is found murdered. Tonight at 8:00 p.m. Standiford reads from and discusses Deal on Ice at Books & Books (296 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables). Admission is free. Call 442-4408.
Lorna Simpson: See Friday.
West Side See Tuesday.
Man of La Mancha: See Tuesday.
