October 22
Dr. Roberto Machado's black-and-white images of prerevolutionary Cuba will be shocking to anyone who's seen what the island looks like today. An overhead shot of a sparkling white Hotel Nacional and its manicured grounds overlooking Havana Bay might as well be South Beach. Another shot features a pair of nattily dressed women on a shiny new motorcycle chatting with the driver of a stately black sedan. The photos, taken between 1930 and 1958, show everyday folks living the good life on a beautiful island, before its economy and culture were stunted by Communism. Machado, a physician, is thought to have taken the photos on a sabbatical from his medical practice. No one is sure, however, because the photos were found after Machado's death in 1979. But 100 of the 700 crusty negatives found in a box were printable, and 70 of them are on display in "Cuba, 19301958: Photographs by Dr. Roberto Machado," through November 14 at the Norton Museum of Art, 1451 S. Olive Ave., West Palm Beach. Admission is $2 or $5. Call 561-832-5194.
Friday
October 23
When choreographer Anna Preston created Collaborations, she wasn't thinking about working with just a few dancers. First, she and visual artists Jack Band and Melanie Bouton created a set by hanging square and rectangular frames of metal and wood above the small, black-box stage at Klein Dance Performance Space (811 Lake Ave., Lake Worth). With the quirky props in place, Preston then choreographed a dance called Gallery, which lampoons the avant-garde attitude of the "artsy" set. Another collaborator is improv artist Cherie Heston, with whom Preston will perform At This Moment, an improvisational dance set to music supplied by vocalists Josette Galtieri and Amy James, who will improvise as well. Passages: Women to Women will close the show with a multigenerational cast of nine females dancing while writer Candace Hoffmann recites her prose piece on the changing roles of women in society. Showtime is 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday. Tickets cost $8 or $12. Call 561-586-1889.
Saturday
October 24
Consider the required safety gear: helmet, shin guards, kneepads, gloves, and elbow pads. Apparently, the promoters of NHL Breakout '98 are concerned about player protection at the huge in-line roller hockey festival at Sawgrass Mills Mall (12801 W. Sunrise Blvd., Sunrise) today and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. You'd think participants were out there to kill each other, not to play one of the country's fastest-growing recreational sports. Perhaps some players are; it's hockey, after all. Rinks will be set up in the mall parking lot, and, when they're not playing, participants will be able to test their scoring skills in the Goal Gallery, get a goalie's-eye view of the game in the Between the Pipes simulator, or make use of their stick-handling skills on the Street Hockey Games course. Winners of Breakout events throughout the United States and Canada will qualify for the championships in Tampa in January. Team registration for five to nine players is $140; admission is free. Call 954-835-7722 for details.
Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor Peter Nero was so excited about his friend John Glenn's return to space that he recently wrote a piece for the occasion. In 1962 Glenn became the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth. Now, at age 77, he's getting ready to join the next space shuttle mission October 29 and thus become the oldest man to leave Earth's atmosphere. The crew won't need alarm clocks, because Mission Control plans to pipe Nero's "Voyage Into Space" through the shuttle's speakers every morning. Local audiences, however, won't have to be on board to hear the piece, because it will be performed by the Florida Philharmonic over the next few days. Nero will conduct and former astronaut George "Pinky" Nelson will narrate. The concert, which also includes sci-fi film scores, begins at 8 p.m. tonight and Tuesday at Broward Community College, Davie Campus, and 8 p.m. Monday at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Ticket prices range from $25 to $50. Call 954-930-1812. See "Concerts For the Week."
Sunday
October 25
You've heard it before: Hell is other people. Well, in this case, hell is quite literally a stage set, this one put together by local artist Philip Hulsey, who created original oil paintings for Academy Theatre's production of Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit. "Disgusting" is how Academy vice president Edith Wexler describes the set, meaning that it's quite appropriate when one considers the subject matter. As the play begins, protagonists Garcin, Inez, and Estelle are being escorted to the "gallery of confessions" by a mysterious valet. They think they're waiting in purgatory, but as they converse, recalling their lives and examining sins and regrets, reality sets in: They've arrived in the big H. No Exit runs through November 8. Showtimes are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $10 or $15. The theater is located at 2700 W. Oakland Park Blvd., Suite 20, Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-486-8876.
Monday
October 26
Francis Ford Coppola is already a filmmaking legend, so if any of his genius has rubbed off on his daughter Sofia, moviegoers may soon be lining up to see her flicks. They'll get their chance tonight when the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival kicks off its mini-fests with a salute to "Women in Film." Sofia Coppola's first short film, Lick the Star, takes a close look at a group of 13-year-old girls obsessed with the V.C. Andrews cult novel Flowers in the Attic, which inspires them to poison the boys in their school and indulge in plenty of bullying and trash-talking gossip. Star begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Museum of Art Auditorium, 1 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. The main festival doesn't begin until November 4, but starting tonight two weeks' worth of mini fests, taking place mainly in Boca Raton, Hollywood, and Miami, will lead up to opening night. Call 954-525-5500. See "Film" for the schedule.
Tuesday
October 27
She has no problem grilling politicians on TV, but ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts does have a soft side, which she reveals in her new book, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters. If you're Roberts, that's a good thing: Her 82-year-old mom, Lindy Boggs, is the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. But the book isn't about keeping up with a firebrand mom. The thin volume of anecdotes and inspirational stories is for women like Roberts, who early on was a working mom balancing family and career. One story recounts how Roberts searched frantically for a baby sitter while on deadline for a National Public Radio piece she was writing on the 1978 Panama Canal Treaty. Roberts will speak at 8 p.m. at the Adolph and Rose Levis Jewish Community Center (9801 Donna Klein Blvd., Boca Raton). General admission tickets cost $20, $50 for preferential seating and dinner. Call 561-852-3259.
Wednesday
October 28
Unlike other monsters, vampires don't just attack their victims; they seduce them with personality and charm, then get what they want -- blood. In the hands of edgy playwright Steven Dietz, Bram Stoker's book about the most famous vampire of all becomes the humorous yet horrific stage version, Dracula. Dietz's interpretation depicts turn-of-the-century London as a society obsessed with sex and titillated by pagan ritual. But when Count Dracula turns up, they get more than they bargained for. The Palm Beach Community College Theatre Program presents Dracula today through November 1 at the Duncan Theatre, 4200 S. Congress Ave., Lake Worth. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Ticket prices range from $5 to $12. Call 561-439-8141.
