Since Boise writer TONY DOERR’S award-winning book “The Memory Wall” came out, and he won the London Sunday Times Short Story award, Doerr has been on the road giving readings from Maine to Boise. He also traveled to Ecuador last month to write about a cloud forest reserve for the New York Times. You can read it in the Times’ Style magazine Nov. 20. “It was as fabulous and strange as it sounds,” Doerr says.
Film director MICHAEL HOFFMAN is in London deep in post-production on his film “Gambit,” which is due out in 2012. Hoffman should be back in Boise by spring, although another film is lining up in the U.K. Hoffman is attached to direct “Girls’ Night Out,” a romantic-comedy/thriller about the adventures of Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth outside Buckingham Palace on V.E. Day. Dakota Fanning is slated to play Mags.
Jazz artist CURTIS STIGERS wound up his touring season with a sold-out stand at Boise Contemporary Theater Nov. 2-5. He opened with an acoustic show that benefited the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley’s Harrison Hollow project. Last week, Stigers recorded his next album for Concord Records in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning producer Larry Kline, who came to Stigers for the project. “His approach is very similar to mine,” Stigers says. “It’s uncanny how well we work together.” The album will be a hybrid of Stigers’ jazz and rock/pop sensibilities. The Xtreme Holiday Xtravaganza, Stigers’ annual community benefit concert, is Dec. 18 and 19 at the Egyptian Theatre, 700 W. Main St. Tickets are $25 each and go on sale Nov. 21 at curtisstigers.com.
The TREY MCINTYRE PROJECT premiered McIntyre’s newest work, “Gravity Heroes,” in Boise Oct. 15 and 16. In September, the company was again named the city’s “Cultural Ambassador.” A few days later, TMP received $450,000 from Art Place, a new collaborative arts-granting group that combines public and private funds to transform communities through arts. TMP also started an arts residency at St. Luke’s, working with cancer patients.
THE IDAHO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL announced its 2012 season: Shakespeare’s tragedy “Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Charlie Fee; Agatha Christie’s mystery “The Mousetrap,” directed by Drew Barr; Moliere’s “The Imaginary Invalid,” adapted and directed by Tracy Young; The Bard’s “The Winter’s Tale”; and Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off.” Season tickets go on sale Nov. 25 at IdahoShakespeare.org.
