Entertainment Digest | Week of Oct. 14

Christian Rock Act Mercy Me Coming to Covelli

YOUNGSTOWN – Christian rock act Mercy Me will come to to Covelli Centre on Feb. 21 for a 7:30 p.m. concert.

Tickets are $25.75, $32.95, $40.50, $58, $68 and $153 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Oct. 18 at Ticketmaster.com (fees apply) and the Covelli box office. An online-only presale will take place at ticketmaster.com from 10 a.m. Oct. 16 to 10 p.m. Oct. 17; use the password IMAGINE.

Opening acts will be Jeremy Camp and David Leonard.

Following back to back successful spring and fall 2019 Imagine Nation Tours, the MercyMe 2020 Tour will support the band’s upcoming studio album, which will be released next year, and brand new single, “Almost Home,” which will be released Oct. 23.

“Almost Home” is a rallying cry to remind us to keep running the race… to keep going, heaven is just around the bend,” says MercyMe’s Bart Millard. “We’re almost home and now is not the time to give up or tap out. Whether you’re in ministry or not – parents, moms, dads, whatever – if you just feel like you don’t know if you can go any further, hopefully this song will bring you comfort and help you realize that you’re not alone and that the race is worth running.”

Mixed Media Artist Exhibits Her Work

YOUNGSTOWN – “Testament,” an exhibition of work by mixed media artist Debra DeGregorio, will, be on exhibit in the Thomases Family Endowment Gallery at the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown, 505 Gypsy Lane, from Oct. 16 through Jan. 5.

The opening reception will be Oct. 16 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Admission is free to the public.

DeGregorio’s work ranges from large, drawn and printed natural forms, to bright micro-installations, using collage, string and sequins on pins.

With an interest in psychology, mythology and humor, her works are landscapes of the interior, described using a personal symbology found in the world of the exterior.

DiGregorio teaches at Youngstown State University.

YSU Wind Ensemble to Present Free Concert

YOUNGSTOWN – The Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble, Stephen L. Gage, conductor ,and the 2019 YSU High School Side-By-Side Honors Wind Ensemble will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at Stambaugh Auditorium, 1000 Fifth Ave.

Tickets are $7 ($6 for senior citizens and students from other schools; free for anyone with a YSU ID card). Twenty-two area high school band programs are represented by students who will perform alongside the YSU Wind Ensemble during the final portion of the concert.

The concert will begin with the Wind Ensemble performing Saint-Saens’ Marche Militaire Francaisea, and will continue with Claudie Smith’s composition, Festival Variations.

A powerful medley of Michael Kaman’s 1991 soundtrack from ”Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” will be played and John Mackey’s “Asphalt Cocktail,” conducted by graduate conducting student Ryan Dutton, will close the first half of the program.

Following intermission, 54 high school instrumentalists will join the YSU Wind Ensemble. The combined 105 piece band will open its portion of the program with a wind band classic, Variations on a Korean Folk Song, featuring soloist, Misook Yun, soprano, singing the “Arirang” lullaby.

Julie Giroux’s poignant and beautiful One Life Beautiful follows and the program will close with a rousing version of “Stars and Stripes Forever!”

Button Box Player Ron Pivonar to Host Polka Party

LIBERTY – Button box musician Ron Pivonar will host a polka party at 10 a.m. Oct. 19 in the meeting room of Kravitz Deli, 3135 Belmont Ave.

Admission to the event, sponsored by the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society is $6 ($5 for those who are WHMHS members). The event will include refreshments, a 50/50 raffle and instrumental music by Dolores DePietro.

Reservations are suggested; call society chairman Richard S. Scarsella at 330 726 8277.

Pivonar is a professor of art and chair of the art department at Thiel College, Greenville, Pa. A graduate of Shenango High School, he was born and raised in New Castle, Pa., where he learned to play the button box, which is an instrument in the accordion family. His program will feature polka favorites and little known polka tunes. Dancing is encouraged.

Artist Dana Oldfather to Give Lecture

YOUNGSTOWN – Dana Oldfather will present a free lecture at 5:10 p.m. Oct. 17 in the auditorium of the John J. McDonough Museum of Art, on the campus of Youngstown State University.

An exhibition by the Cleveland artist, “Out of the Weeds,” is currently on display in the McDonough galleries.

Oldfather celebrates paint and the oddity of human experience with a focus on femininity and motherhood in her current exhibition. Her large, abstract paintings reveal fantastical spaces and intertwined figures in a chaotic, yet whimsical arrangement.

The McDonough is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

Fundraiser Event for Library Levy Renewal

YOUNGSTOWN — The Citizens Committee for the Library Levy Renewal announces Brews for Books, a benefit event to support the committee’s efforts to encourage passage of Issue 1, the Library Levy renewal, on the November ballot.

Brews for Books will take place from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Whistle & Keg, 101 W. Federal St., downtown. It will include entertainment, free pizza and a cash bar.

Admission is $15, and tickets can be purchased in advance at MyLibraryLevy.org.

Issue 1 is a 2.4-mill renewal levy that supports The Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County. The levy provides over half of the Library’s operating budget.

Lecture on Historic North Side Homes

YOUNGSTOWN – Mahoning Valley Historical Society will present “Historic Homes of the Northside” as the featured Bites and Bits of History Lunch Program at noon on Oct. 17 at the Tyler History Center, 325 W. Federal St., downtown. The main speaker will be local historian Marcia Levy.

Levy will review the history of homes on Youngstown’s North Side and the people who lived there.

The program is free and attendees may bring their own lunchDoors open at 11:30 a.m. In addition to ample street parking nearby, an adjacent public lot on the west side of the building is available and costs $2.50.

‘Heavy Hitters’ of Musical Theater Cabaret

YOUNGSTOWN – The Heavy Hitters Cabaret are on deck at the DeYor Performing Arts Center.

*Cast of The Heavy Hitters Cabaret include Adam Dominick, Rosie Bresson, Daniel Navabi, AnnMarie Lowerre and Haley Tura.*

Youngstown State University musical theater students will present “The Heavy Hitters Cabaret,” an original show featuring iconic show tunes, at 7 p.m. Oct. 18 at Flad Pavilion., 260 W. Federal St., downtown.

Tickets are $25 ($5 for students with ID) and are available at 330 744 4269 or DeyorPac.org.

The show is coordinated by Maria Fenty Denison, musical theater faculty member at YSU, and all proceeds will benefit the program.

Student performers include Rosie Bresson, Alexis Cerny, Maria Coicco, Adam Dominick, Elijah DuPonty, Lacey Farina, Samantha Gurd, Halla Henry, Morgan Lacamera, AnnMarie Lowerre, Aislinn Lowry, Ben Mowrer, Nate Montgomery, Daniel Navabi, Ciara Rosario, Hannah Rlosser, Kamryn Rudolph, Destinee Thompson, Haley Tura and Nathan Wagner.

The repertoire will include musical numbers from the upcoming YSU Theater performance of “Cabaret,” and also “Annie Get Your Gun” (“Anything You Can Do”), “Guys and Dolls” (“Sue Me”), “The Music Man” (“Trouble”), “”West Side Story” (“Maria” and “Tonight”) and many more.

16th Annual Taste of the Town

NEW CASTLE, PA. – The Lawrence County area will celebrate the various cuisines in the community at the United Way’s 16th annual Taste of the Town on Oct. 21 from 5-7:30 p.m. at the New Englander Banquet Center.

The event will feature food from these restaurants: Crane Room Grille, El Canelo, Elmtree Catering, Riardo’s Bar & Grill, Gallo’s Italian Villa, Los Amigo’s, Mary’s Restaurant, Medure’s Catering, J. Hicks On The Square, Papa Gelataria, Rosalind Candy, Pizza Joe’s, Red Lobster, Smokin Dave’s BBQ, Tuscany Square Ristorante and more.

For information, call 724 658 8528 or go to UWLawCty.org.

Lecture by Artist Maria Elena Versari

YOUNGSTOWN – Maria Elena Versari, a guest artist at Youngstown State University, will give a free lecture titled “Mechanical Victories: Of Machines, Proletarians and the Politics of the Avant-garde” at 5:10 p.m. Oct. 22 in the McDonough Museum Auditorium.

Versari, an art history professor at Carnegie Mellon University, is a former Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art in Paris.

In 2016, she edited and co-translated the first English-language edition of Boccioni’s 1914 “Futurist Painting Sculpture” for the Getty Research Institute Publications, and has co-curated Totally Lost, an EU-sponsored exhibition devoted to totalitarian architecture and urban memory.

She is currently completing a book manuscript titled “The Foreign Policy of the Avant-garde” and pursuing research for a second book on political iconoclasm in the 20th century.

Bus Trip to Northfield Casino

YOUNGSTOWN – The St. Vincent de Paul Society of Youngstown at St. Patrick Church is sponsoring a day trip to the MGM Casino in Northfield Park on Oct. 29. The cost is $35 per person and includes a buffet lunch, as well as $25 in slot play.

The coach leaves St. Patrick Church, 1420 Oakhill Ave., at 9:30 a.m. and returns at 6 p.m. to the same site.

Reservations are due by Oct. 22. Checks are payable to St. Patrick SVDP in care of Marilyn Kocur, 1260 Barbie Drive, Boardman OH 44512. For information, contact Marilyn at 330 881 3156.