Miss Conception
Toronto’s Kevin Levesque brings his Miss Conception drag queen persona to lakeside once again with his new show Immaculate Collection, Saturday, January 21, 6 p.m. at the Auditorio de la Ribera.
Opening for Miss Conception is Ajijic’s own Sydney Gay in “A Girl Named Gay.”
This show, sponsored by That’s Entertainment Ajijic, is a fundraiser for Ajijic Cares, an organization that seeks to bring to bring awareness of HIV/AIDS to the lakeside community and to recognize World Aids Day
Tickets from Jose Melendrez, Diane Pearl, Wildes and vallartatickets.com.
Live from the Met
Viva La Musica sponsors Saturday bus trips to Teatro Diana in Guadalajara to view productions of Live from the Met.
January 21, “Romeo and Juliet” by Gounod; February 25, “Rusalka” by Dvorak; March 11, “La Traviata” by Verdi; March 25, “Idomeneo” by Mozart. April 22, “Eugene Onegin” by Tchaikovsky, and May 13, “Der Rosencavalier” by R. Strauss.
Bus tickets, 400 pesos (500 for non-Viva members), are available at LCS on Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to noon.
Fiber Art
The Kindred Quilters, a local fiber art collective, will be holding their fourth annual Fiber Art Show Saturday, January 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Paseo de los Veleros 73 in La Floresta. Eight women each work with different emphasis and style ranging from traditional quilt making to abstract fiber art, to the creation of fiber for weaving. Members have exhibited work throughout Mexico and the United States, as well as Brazil, Argentina, France, Russia, England and Switzerland.
Mexican Extravaganza
Enjoy the color and magic of Mexican culture at the benefit for Cruz Roja Chapala, Saturday, January 21, 4-7 p.m., hosted by the owners of Rancho Cortijo, located in west Ajijic.
The spectacle will include performances the Ballet Folklorico de Guadalajara, a mariachi band, songstress Lupita Jiménez and a local charro with his high-stepping dancing horse. The admission donation of 1,500 includes bar drinks, cold cut platters and gourmet desserts. Proceeds go towards paying off the bill for a newly acquired Red Cross ambulance.
Jewish film fest
The 8th annual Ajijic Jewish Film Festival continues Sunday, January 22, with “Defiance” (2008, United States). Based on the true story of brothers leading a guerilla movement in Belarus against the Nazis, the Bielski partisans represented the war’s largest and most successful group of Jewish resisters.
Presented by the Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation, the festival features a film on each Sunday in January and February at Cinemas del Lago in Plaza Bugambilias. All the films begin at 1:30 p.m. except “Judgement at Nuremberg” on January 29, which begins at 11:30 a.m. and has one intermission due to its three-hour length.
Other upcoming films are: “Baba Joon” (2015, Israel) February 5; “A Stranger Among Us” (1992, United States) February 12; “Bottle in the Gaza Sea” (2011, France/Canada/Israel) February 19; “My Mexican Shivah” (2007, Mexico) February 26.
Tickets are 60 pesos, available at the cinema. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Mision San Pablo.
Louie Andrade
A vocalist for various top 40 bands, Louie Andrade will croon the night away at La Bodega Restaurant, Thursday, January 26, 6-9 p.m. For reservations call 766-1002.
Lip Sync is back
More than 30 acts will comprise this year’s Lip Sync Oh La La song and dance performance at a fundraiser for the continuing renovation of the Auditorio de La Ribera. Directed by Michael McLaughlin, the presentations include songs by Prince, Michael Jackson, Juan Gabriel, David Bowie, Lola Beltran, Bette Midler, Bruno Mars and AC/DC among others.
Performances are Friday and Saturday, January 27 and 28, 6 p.m. and Sunday, January 29 at noon and 4 p.m. Tickets, 250 pesos for center seats and 150 pesos for side seats, are available at Diane Pearl, Mia’s Boutique, Yoli’s, the Auditorio and the Lake Chapala Society. You can also reserve at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Naked Stage
The Naked Stage Readers’ Theatre will feature Roseann Wilshere, Tony Wilshere, Damyn Young and Pierre Blackburn in their next production, “The December Man,” January 27-29 in a benefit for the Cruz Roja Chapala.
The play by Colleen Murph, directed by Lynn Phelan, is a riveting, suspenseful drama of courage, survival, heroism and despair. Survival guilt affects all it touches, and is vividly and honestly depicted in this piece. The suggested donation for the show is now 100 pesos, of which any profit is donated to Cruz Roja.
LLT auditions
The Lakeside Little Theatre (LLT) will conduct auditions for “Second Summer” by Gary Richards on January 27 and 28. Director Paul Kloegman is casting for two men and three women. Registration is at 9:30 a.m. and auditions begin 10 a.m. at LLT.
This romantic comedy centers on widower Reginald Herring, a good-natured and affable man, who has now become somewhat bitter after the death of his beloved wife, Mabel. Herring reluctantly sells his business and home and moves to Florida, or, as he calls it, “God’s waiting room,” to live out his final years alone. What Herring finds instead is a world of new possibilities when single women his age discover this new, available man. Second Summer is about the rebirth of an older man who finds the long dormant teenager in himself still exists. After all, “its not how old you are, it’s how you are old.”
For scripts and information, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Duo Petrof concert
CREM, Lakeside’s impressive music school, presents a concert by the Duo Petrof and their student Saul Ulises Ibarra Ramos Saturday, February 4, 6 p.m. at the Auditorio de la Ribera.
Ibarra Ramos is a Jocotepec teen who began playing at the age of seven and moved to Colima in 2012 to study with the Duo (Anatoly Zatin and Vlada Vassilieva) at the city’s Universitario de Bellas Artes.
The concert will include pieces by Bach, Ravel, Schubert, Liszt, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Khachaturian. Tickets, 250 pesos, are available at the Auditorio, Diane Pearl and from Friends of CREM. All proceeds go to the CREM scholarship fund.
JPO bus trips
Viva la Musica hosts bus trips for the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra concerts next month.
Sunday February 5: Gershwin’s piano concerto “Porgy & Bess” and Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” Thursday, February 9: Shostakovich piano concerto No. 1 and Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 1”. Sunday, February 19: “The Piper of Hamelin” with the Ballet de Jalisco. Sunday, February 26: Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique.”
Bus tickets, 450 pesos (550 for non-Viva members), are available at the Lake Chapala Society on Thursdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. to noon.
Galen’s last concert
Galen presents the last concert this season Tuesday, February 7, with musicians Dale Hetler, Moe González and Juan Castañón. A reception with wine and food catered by Dos Fuegos Catering Company begins 6 p.m. and the concert starts 7 p.m. Dessert and coffee will be served after the concert. Tickets are 400 pesos and must be purchased in advance. Call Wendy Hamblin, 766-4835. See www.concertsbycandlelight.com.
Actor’s workshop
Bravo Theatre Actor’s Workshop is an ongoing scene study class that continues most of the year on Mondays from 3-5:30 p.m. at the Bravo Theatre.
On February 8 and 9, 4 p.m. and February 10, 7:30 p.m., 13 actors will present their fourth showcase, consisting of several ten-minute short plays and a full evening of entertaining theater. The fun takes place at Rio Bravo 10 in Ajijic. Admission is by donation and reservations can be made at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Viva La Musica
Award-winning pianist Michael Tsalka will play at a Viva La Musica sponsored musical matinee, “Dancing in the Moonlight,” in the home of Blair Ferguson Thursday, January 26, 4 p.m. Tsalka will interpret a program of pieces by Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, Manuel de Falla and others. A champagne reception begins at 4 p.m., followed by the concert at 5 p.m. Tickets are 450 and 500 pesos and available at Mia’s Boutique, the Lake Chapala Society, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon, or through Rosemary Keeling at 766-1801. The address is on the ticket.
Singers needed
Los Cantantes del Lago rehearsals begin this month for the spring concert, “Spring Fever.” The choral group will sing “live” music with piano, drums and trumpet. Enjoy singing disco, Beach Boys and a lot of other period music. Only two rehearsals per week (Tuesday and Thursday from 3 to 5:30 p.m.) and two exciting concerts. See www.loscantantesdellago.com to join or contact director, Tim Welch, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Lake Chapala Chorale
The Lake Chapala Chorale is issuing an open invitation to local singers to audition for a chance to join the already highly successful vocal ensemble.
There’s no need to read music, according to director Cindy Paul, since all the parts are online for comfy home study. Everyone auditioning is welcome to come before any rehearsal between 2:15 and 2:45 p.m. on Fridays at the Little Chapel, just east of the Chula Vista Golf Club on the highway.