“Wait Until Dark ” will open at First Avenue Playhouse on Oct. 7 and play every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. through Oct. 29, with a Sunday matinee on Oct. 16 at 2:30 p.m. For evening performances, the playhouse doors open at 8 p.m., when patrons may enjoy complimentary dessert and coffee before the show starts promptly at 8:30 p.m. The Sunday matinee door opens at 2 p.m. with a 2:30 p.m. start. Tickets are $20 on Friday and Saturday and $15 on Thursday and Sunday matinees. For information and reservations, call the playhouse at (732) 291-7552 or visit www.firstavenueplayhouse.com.
Meet local artists and watch them work at Community Artists Day at The Grove at Shrewsbury, Route 35, on Saturday, Oct. 8, from noon to 5 p.m. Participants are fine artists including Fred Mayr, wood sculpting expo; Pinky, handmade purses; Jennifer Lukowiak, pottery; and Vicky Nelson, home murals and paintings. There will also be a creative and fun multimedia fall art project for children. All supplies will be provided, and children should wear casual clothing. For more information, visit www.thegroveatshrewsbury.com.
Visit Cel-ebration! Gallery on Saturday, Oct. 8, from 2-4 p.m. for the Jersey Shore Nostalgia Show opening reception. The gallery will premiere a collection of pinball machine back-glass art. These brightly painted and colorful works of art are a delight for both young and old. Meet artist Sue Tumblety, who is renowned for her paintings of Asbury Park and her Disney Gallery Store creations. R.S.V.P. is requested. Cel-ebration! is located at 30 Monmouth St., Red Bank, in the Victorian Courtyard. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (732) 842- 8489 or visit www.cel-ebration.com.
Debbie Friedman, contemporary Jewish singer and guitarist, will appear in a special performance sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Monmouth County and Temple Beth El of Oakhurst, on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 8 p.m.
The performance, at the JCC’s Herbert and Evelyn Axelrod Performing Arts Center, is part of the “Saturday Night at the J” Concert Series. Tickets are $25 each, and $20 for seniors, and may be ordered at the JCC, 100 Grant Ave., Deal, or by calling Lisa Goldfarb at (732) 531-9100, ext. 100. Upcoming performances in the concert series are Nov. 5, Pacific Opera Company; Nov. 19, Soul Farm; Dec. 3, Bruce Adler; Feb. 11, Gerard Edery Ensemble, featuring Cantor Alberto Mizrahi; Feb. 18, Neshama Carlebach; March 4, Pharaoh’s Daughters, swirling Hasidic chants; Sunday, March 19, Zalmen Mlotek & the New Yiddish Chorale; and March 25, Margot Leverett & the Klezmer Mountain Boys.
Jazz Week 2005 will be held at Monmouth County Library Headquarters, 125 Symmes Drive, Manalapan, Nov. 16-20. Jack Livingstone will present and comment on a film, “Louis Armstrong and Friends,” at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 16. Live performances are: The Joanne Brackeen Trio, 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 17; The New Black Eagle Jazz Band, Dixieland ensemble, 8 p.m. on Nov. 18; Warren Chiasson Quartet, a tribute to Lionel Hampton, 2 p.m. on Nov. 19; and Mike Longo and the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, 2 p.m. on Nov. 20. There is no charge. For more information, call (732) 431-7242.
Jersey Shore singer and songwriter John Padovano will perform songs from his newly released CD, “Songs From a Boardwalk Music Hall,” at the Berkeley Carteret Oceanfront Hotel, Asbury Park, Saturday, Oct. 15, 9 p.m. to midnight.
The one-of-a-kind flute ensemble known as Uptown Flutes will perform at the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House, 1475 West Front St., Lincroft, on Sunday, Oct. 16, at 4 p.m.
The group will perform works and arrangements composed for the entire family of flutes: piccolo, C flute, alto and bass flutes, which include the contrabass flute, the rarest member of the flute family. The eight-member ensemble, in residence at Drew University in Madison, includes Jeanne Fessenden, Patricia Davila, Elise Carter, Karen Demsey, John McMurtery, Rebecca Vega, Carla Auld and Virginia Schulze-Johnson.
The group’s program will feature varying ensemble sizes, genres, styles and historical periods, from Bach to Katherine Hoover. A reception with refreshments will follow the concert. Advance tickets (more than seven days before the event) are $20 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. Seven or fewer days before the event the cost is $25 for adults and $15 for students and seniors. Children under age 12 are $5 at all times. Call (732) 714-8149 for tickets.
Middletown’s new library is celebrating a year of record-breaking use and support with a free concert and reception for the community on Sunday, Oct. 23, at 3 p.m. Vladislav Kovalsky, internationally acclaimed classical pianist, will perform a concert of favorite classical works on the library’s new grand piano. Kovalsky is director of the Monmouth Conservatory of Music in Red Bank. Community residents are invited to tour the renovated library on Saturday before 2 p.m. A reception will follow the concert
The Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts (SICA) in Long Branch will present the Second Annual International Juried Exhibition with juror John Czerkowicz from Oct. 18 through Nov. 12. Encompassing a broad range of work and media, the show features local artists as well as artists residing throughout the country and world. The exhibition’s opening reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 21, 5-9 p.m. SICA is located at 20 Third Ave. Gallery hours are Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 1-5 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call (732) 263-1121 or visit www.sica.org.