CRANBROOK ART MUSEUM AND ST. DUNSTAN’S THEATRE GUILD OF CRANBROOK PRESENT AN EVENING WITH PICASSO

Bloomfield Hills, Mich., February 15, 2002: As part of its ongoing Fabulous Friday Nights series, Cranbrook Art Museum has joined forces with St. Dunstan’s Theatre Guild of Cranbrook to create a unique evening of art, film and theatre.

On Friday, March 8, Fabulous Friday Nights at Cranbrook Art Museum will present “Picasso Live!” – a rare opportunity to get to know the artist Pablo Picasso. In conjunction with the museum’s March film series, actors from St. Dunstan’s Theatre Guild of Cranbrook will present vignettes from their upcoming production, Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Cast members will perform throughout the museum and mingle with patrons, providing a sneak preview of the Steve Martin comedy opening March 15 at the theatre.  

The vignettes will accompany the second evening of the museum’s March film series, a screening of the documentary “Picasso: The Forceful Gaze.” The film reveals the power of the artist’s last painting, La Mira Fuerte, and tells the tragic story of Picasso’s last wife, Jacqueline – who was expected to be model, muse and wife, and was subjected to all the mental and physical metamorphoses in her husband’s paintings. Told through interviews with Picasso’s friends and a visual chronicle of his work, the film provides keen insights into the brilliant artist’s final, and little known, creative period.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile also explores Picasso’s life … or at least how it might have been, as imagined by comedian and writer Steve Martin. Set in 1904 at the Lapin Agile, a Paris bar famous as a gathering place for artists and intellectuals, the absurdist comedy depicts a fictional meeting between Picasso and Albert Einstein. Surrounded by the colorful characters that inhabit the bar, the geniuses explore the nature of creativity and celebrity – exchanging fast-paced dialogue that’s wickedly funny and beautifully wise.

“Picasso Live!” begins at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 8, with vignette performances. The film will be screened at 7:30 p.m., and more vignettes will be presented following the film, at approximately 8:10 p.m. Admission is included in the price of museum admission ($5 for adults, $3 for full-time students and senior citizens and free to children under 5) and is free for Cranbrook Art Museum members.

Cranbrook Art Museum is open Fridays beginning at 11 a.m., so visitors can come early and enjoy the three current exhibitions: Three Decades of Contemporary Art: The Dr. John and Rose M. Shuey Collection; Zine Scene; and New On View: Recent Acquisitions.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile will be presented by St. Dunstan’s Theatre Guild of Cranbrook on Friday and Saturday, March 15 & 16 and 22 & 23 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, March 17 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $12 (adults) and $10 (students and seniors). Tickets can be ordered by calling (248) 644-0527.