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.

What did you do in the arts this past week?

I headed to Roberson for the inaugural Two Rivers arts festival, but there were so many things on my “to do” list that didn’t get done. Maybe you could tell me ( and the rest of BAMirror’s readers) what I missed. Please share what you did in the arts this past week.