Masks in Clay Workshop In several cultures, humans have developed different ways of blending in with nature, re-interpreting ourselves as individuals by wearing elements on our bodies such as masks or jewelry, everything that adorns us, that accompanies us, that dresses us. Ceramics have played an important role in witnessing these objects that were often used in ritual ceremonies, battles, celebrations, and animal hunting. In order to embody new characteristics within our own sense of humanity, using animal symbols wishing to have their strength, adding fangs, and feathers, some use symbols, anthropomorphic mixtures, symbols of nature, and representations of gods, among many more symbols, according to each cosmology. Masks can help us to reveal the identity of who we are or who we would like to be, using the attributes and strengths of animals, colors, elements of nature, symbols and reinterpreting our reality and corporeality. In this workshop students will be creating masks by hand in clay, based on the idea of identifying in ourselves symbols that represent our identity, relationship with the natural and mythical. All supplies included in this workshop.

The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged) Reduced Shakespeare Company They’ve skewered history, the Bible and the world’s most celebrated playwright. Now, the Reduced Shakespeare Company tackles the subject it was born to reduce. From the high-brow to the low, The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged) covers comedy through the ages. Tickets to The Complete History of Comedy (Abridged) are more affordable than tickets to an amusement park, but you’ll come away with the same feeling of nausea and motion sickness. The bad boys of abridgement leave no joke untold as they deconstruct the entire history of comedy in 90 rollicking minutes. Warning! Side-effects may include uncontrollable milking and painful running gags.   CONTENT ADVISORY: In the spirit of Shakespeare’s comedies, RSC shows contain comic depictions of violence, mild innuendo, bawdy language, and the occasional rude work. All children (and parents) are different, so we’ve chosen to rate our shows PG-13: Pretty Good If You’re Thirteen.

Raritan Valley Symphonic Band Fall Concert “Jubiloso” The Raritan Valley Symphonic Band returns to Franklin to start its 41st season with its Fall concert, “Jubiloso”, on Sunday November 5 at 3 PM. Under the direction of Frank Amato, the concert will be held at Franklin High School, 500 Elizabeth Avenue, Somerset, NJ where the RVSB performed a well-attended concert last April. Admission is free! “Jubiloso” is a musical term used to direct musicians to perform in a jubilant or exalted manner. Throughout the upcoming season, the RVSB will be jubilantly performing works from its initial concert in March 1984. For this Fall concert, the RVSB will perform a musical journey of the history of the Concert Band through some of its most popular composers. The concert begins with one of America’s most popular marches: E.E. Bagley’s National Emblem March. Next is Percy Grainger’s Irish Tune from County Derry using the theme from the traditional old air “O Danny Boy” with colorful sonorities, straightforward accessibility, and a memorable climax. The band will then perform two concert band standards: Frank Erickson’s Toccata for Band and Robert Pearson’s Minuteman March. The first half concludes with Eric Osterling’s regal arrangement of March & Procession