What did you do in the arts this weekend?

Did you participate in the monthly art walk (as either a walker or an artist)? Were you in the audience for a high school musical? Did you, like me, try to catch up on Oscar winners that you hadn’t seen yet? (First thought after finally seeing Argo: Christoph Waltz must have been absolutely amazing in Django to have been deemed more worthy of the Best Supporting Actor award than the hilarious Alan Arkin.) Please join our conversation.

Early Serling play gets a staged reading

Heidi Weeks, Jim Hull

By George Basler

The night of Jan. 12, 1955, was one that changed Rod Serling’s life.

On that night, his teleplay, “Patterns,” appeared on the Kraft Television Theatre during what is  now called “the Golden Age” of live television. The play, which focuses on psychological bloodletting in the corporate boardroom, was an immediate smash hit and won Serling the first of his six Emmy Awards, said Larry Kassan, director of special projects for the Binghamton City School District and founder and director of the Rod Serling Video Festival.

Almost overnight, Serling, who grew up in Binghamton, went from being a struggling writer to a hot commodity in the television world. He would follow up the success a year later with another Emmy Award-winning drama, “Requiem for the Heavyweight,” and would be on his way to a stellar, two decade-long writing career, tragically cut shot by a heart attack in 1975.

Audiences will get a chance to view Serling’s early success this Thursday and Friday (Oct. 11 and 12) when the Rod Serling Video Festival and Southern Tier Actors Read present a staged reading of “Patterns” in Binghamton High School’s Black Box Theatre. Both performances will begin at 7:30 p.m.

KNOW Theatre successfully tackles controversial play

Reviewed by George Basler

Violence is on display at the KNOW Theatre in downtown Binghamton. The instruments aren’t guns or knives, but verbal cruelty and desperation that can warp human beings.

This desperation is the main theme of KNOW’s first-rate production of David Mamet’s controversial, 1984 Pulitzer prize-winning play, Glengarry Glen Ross. Set in a Chicago real estate office, the play focuses on a group of salesmen willing to go to any lengths to survive in the dog-eat-dog world where the highest- grossing salesman wins a Cadillac, and the losers get sacked.

‘Breaking Legs’ is a very entertaining play with a talented cast

Reviewed by Ralph Hall

The Cider Mill Playhouse’s production of Breaking Legs by Tom Dulack is a nearly perfect defining of the 21^st century term “profiling” with the added touch of humor. When you take everything one believes about a specific cultural, ethnic group and add a bit of slapstick comedy, identifiable human guilt and visible sexual overtones — all performed by a talented cast — the results have to be a great success.

What did you do in the arts this past weekend?

Did you participate in the First Friday Art Walk? Were you in the audience — or on stage — for a high school musical? Did you catch a play, concert or reading? Please share your opinions and experiences here.