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Crowded Kitchen Players’ “A Terrible Beauty” will explore Ireland’s “the Troubles” at Charles A. Brown Ice House, which is located at 56 River St. in Bethlehem.
“A Terrible Beauty” is the fourth play written by Ara Barlieb that examines Irish history. Barlieb’s newest play takes place in Belfast in 1922 and tells the story of a family’s experience during ‘the Troubles.”
After the Anglo-Irish War of Independence ends with a highly contested treaty, and the Irish Civil War looms only a few months ahead, the Gallaghers are a nationalist middle-class Catholic family in northern Ireland. The family is trying to co-exist peacefully amid the mounting struggle between the free-state Irish Republicans of the south, who refuse to accept the Ulster Partition, and the Irish Loyalists who will fight to the death to remain under British rule and protection.
The Gallagher family prepares to sit down to its traditional Irish supper in late 1922, when a series of unexpected guests pound at the door in mounting desperation, seeking refuge from the violence erupting just down the road.
The latest play takes place after Barlieb’s trilogy, which chronicled the Irish war of independence from Great Britain — “The Rising,” “The Anglo-Irish War for Independence,” and “An Explosion by the Ballyseedy Woods” — which Crowded Kitchen Players staged from 2022 through 2025.
Playing the Gallagher family are Trish Cipoletti, David Oswald, Mike Daniels, Sharon A. Ferry, and Robert Tollinger. The cast also features Pamela Wallace, Danny Black, Dan Ferry, Fiona Sweeney, Bruce Brown, Dan Van Arsdale, and Lance Boyle.
Tickets cost $15, and can be purchased online or at the door with cash or check.
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Updated ‘Tinker Bell’
DeSales University’s Act 3 will present “Tinker Bell” at the Schubert Theatre, which is located at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University. That’s at 2755 Station Ave. in Upper Saucon Township, Lehigh County.
The play will take its audience to Neverland through the eyes of its most feisty fairy, as Tinker Bell, played by Caitlyn Kaiser, searches for friendship and meets a runaway boy named Peter, played by Sophia Twohig. When she takes him to Neverland, the island erupts with strange creatures, wild adventure, and the threat of Captain Hook, played by Shawn Laub. With the arrival of wide-eyed Wendy, played by Amy Scraggs, Tinker Bell must learn that friendship isn’t always as simple as it seems.
Act 3 is the senior capstone project for DeSales’ theater students, requiring them to produce a fully realized show from design and marketing through performance. The project culminates in 19 performances and showcases the creativity, teamwork, and skills students have developed over four years of study.
“I’m ecstatic for audiences to experience this bold retelling of J.M. Barrie’s classic,” said director Ryan Plunkett. “It’s a wonderful privilege to bring the magic of Neverland to life.”
The student production team includes Jamir Fisher, line producer, oversees scheduling and coordination; Maya Jean, stage manager; Emma Sills, costume designer; Henry Ingles, scenic designer and technical director; Brooke Daly, lighting designer; Andrew Kopacz, sound designer; Olivia Mills, props; Isabella Marin, fight choreography; Grace Curry, business manager; Kaiser, box office manager, and Twohig, marketing manager and education liaison.
“Tinker Bell” is recommended for ages 3–9 but will delight audiences of all ages.
Performances will be at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. March 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 31, and April 7; at 12:30 p.m. on April 9; and at 10 a.m. on April 11.
Relaxed, sensory-friendly performances will be at 12:30 p.m. March 21 and 28.
An audio described and ASL-interpreted performance will be presented for patrons who are blind or visually impaired and for those who are deaf or hard of hearing at 10 a.m. on April 7.
New dance festival
JCWK Dance Lab will present The Greater Reading Area Dance Exchange Festival at Alvernia University’s Francis Hall Theatre, which is located at 401 Zygmunta Ln. in Reading.
An in-person extension of the program on BCTV, the three-day festival will celebrate dance in Berks County and America’s 250th anniversary. The G.R.A.D.E. Festival will bring together adult-focused performance groups for the first time in Berks County history. Each day will feature a different lineup of local dance organizations.
Performing groups will be The Actor’s School, Albright College Dance Team, Alvernia University Dance Company, Alvernia University Dance Team, Amanda Pena (Flamenco), Barrio Alegria/ Grupo Uarhani (Mexican Folk Dance), Go Getter Movement Studioz (Aerial Dance), Helena Zahra (Bellydance), Heritage Hotties/ The Heritage of Green Hills (Dance/ Pom Team for Older Adults), Hooley School of Irish Dance, JCWK Dance Lab (Contemporary Dance), Klassic Contemporary Ballet Company, Latin AF Dance Company, Que Rico Latin Dance Company, Reading Royals’ Ice Angels, WH Dance Academy (Latin Dance), and Xion Step and Dance Team (Albright College).
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and at 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Tickets cost $25.
Dinner theater
Pines Dinner Theatre in Allentown will take audiences back to the roaring ‘20s and the vibrant underbelly of society with “Lucky Malone’s Not So Lucky Night.”
The audience will spend an evening with Lucky Malone at the grand opening of his new speakeasy, named after his new heartthrob Moxie. But, to Lucky’s misfortune, nothing goes according to plan. This immersive show will have audience members rubbing elbows with a cast of charters who will keep them in stitches as the evening unfolds.
While food is not included in the ticket price, dinner service is available for all performances at an additional cost. Thirty-percent gratuity is automatically added to all split checks.
Tickets cost $42 and includes a reserved seat, taxes, and box-office fees.
The show is rated PG-13 for some innuendo.
Performances will be noon, dinner; 1:30 p.m., show Thursdays, Sundays; 6 p.m., dinner; 7:30 p.m., show Fridays; noon, dinner; 1:30 p.m., show; 6 p.m., dinner; 7:30 p.m., show Saturdays, March 14 to April 18.
The theater is located at 315 S. Cedar Crest Blvd. in Allentown.
‘The Clock’ in Reading
The elegance of the Classical era will come to life with “Mozart and Haydn ‘The Clock,’” a program that showcases the wit, grace, and innovation of two musical masters.
The Reading Symphony Orchestra will present the concert, conducted by Andrew Constantine, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Santander Performing Arts Center, which is located at 136 N. Sixth St. in downtown Reading.
Mozart’s radiant Symphony No. 29 and the lyrical Horn Concerto No. 3, featuring Megan Amos on French horn, highlight Mozart’s youthful genius and effortless elegance. Haydn’s beloved Symphony No. 101, “The Clock,” bursts with playful rhythms, rich textures, and the composer’s signature humor. A program of refinement, joy, and timeless sophistication.
The concert will feature a special appearance by the RSO’s Reading Symphony Orchestra Junior Strings.
Tickets start at $25.
Music from space
The Allentown Symphony Orchestra will present “Space: The Final Frontier – Star Wars, The Planets & More” at 2 and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Miller Symphony Hall in Allentown.
The orchestra will be conducted by Diane Wittry, and the concert will feature vocalist Jesse Posa.
The ASO’s exploration of space will feature music from movies and television, such as “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Right Stuff,” “Lost in Space,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and “ET;” classical and popular favorites, such as “Mars” and “Jupiter” from Holst’s “The Planets;” standards “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Come Fly with Me;” and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and Elton John’s “Rocket Man.”
Posa has appeared in Phillip Carlo’s off-Broadway production of “East of Evil,” starring Frank Vincent and Tony Sirico of “The Sopranos,” and is one of the leading Frank Sinatra impersonators in the country. He has performed as “Frank Sinatra” at Radio City Music Hall, in the off-Broadway production of “Sinatra & Friends” at BB King’s in Times Square, in “Party with the Rat Pack,” and on the TV show “Impractical Jokers.”
Bagrock in Easton
The Red Hot Chilli Pipers will return to the State Theatre in Easton at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The pipers bring together bagpipes and rock for a hybrid they call bagrock, where rock anthems are performed alongside the great tunes from the glens and the mountains of Scotland.
The Red Hot Chilli Pipers are an internationally renowned ensemble consisting of pipers, guitarists, keyboards, and drummers who have performed from New York to Beijing to Melbourne and everywhere in between with musicianship of the highest order and a passion for pipes. The band has four music degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and all the pipers and drummers have played at the top level in bagpiping.
Since it walked away with the top prize on the primetime TV talent show, “When Will I Be Famous” in the U.K. in 2007, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers haven’t stopped. Formed in 2002, the band has become a global phenomenon, taking its signature “bagrock” sound to the masses with its unique fusion of rocked up bagpipes and clever covers of popular songs from all genres. Its trademarked sound includes traditional pipe tunes – like “The Flowers of Scotland,” “The Hills of Argyll,” and “Amazing Grace” (done Chilli-style, of course!) — and contemporary anthems like Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” “Clocks” by Coldplay, “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol, “Let Me Entertain You” by Robbie Williams, and a fantastic rock medley of “Deep Purple,” “Smoke on the Water,” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.”
Joining the band onstage will be Liberty High School Grenadier Pipes & Drums.
Tickets cost $48.95.