2017-2018 Jewel Box Series announced

A musical earth rover, the Mexican Revolution, military veterans’ war stories, a musical afternoon devoted to love, an evening of choreography inspired by the night and more will be part of the fourth annual El Paso Community Foundation Jewel Box Series at the Philanthropy Theatre.

The Jewel Box Series, created by the El Paso Community Foundation to showcase local performing arts groups in the charming Philanthropy Theatre, has carved out a niche presenting diverse, unusual and inventive programs. The 2017-2018 season, which features eight shows from October through May, will be no different.

It will feature music, theater, multi-media and dance programs by El Paso’s Impact | Programs of Excellence, Tumbleweed Collective, Eden Enterprises, Los Actores, actor-director Camilla Carr, the El Paso Society for Musicians of the Future and composer-musician Daniel Rivera, plus the Scaffolding Theatre Company of Las Cruces.

Tickets for the 2017-2018 season are $16, on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, September 15 at the Plaza Theatre box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800-745-3000. Season tickets for all eight shows are $103 (a 20% discount), on sale at the El Paso Community Foundation, 333 N. Oregon, by phone at 915-533-4020 or online at epcf.org/give/donate.

The Jewel Box Series is produced in partnership with El Paso Live, and is supported by the City of El Paso’s Museums and Cultural Affairs Department. The 191-seat Philanthropy Theatre is located above the Plaza Theatre box office on the second floor of the Plaza Theatre Performing Arts Centre annex.

SCHEDULE

• “Earth Aural Rover 1 Project”
2:30 p.m. Sunday, October 8
Impact | Programs of Excellence presents Las Cruces artist Brack Morrow’s remote-controlled, sound-recording, music-making rover. The program features an introduction by Morrow, a musical performance of the rover, and a short film about EAR1’s travels to places such as the White Sands National Monument.

• “Telling El Paso — Our Veterans. Their Stories.”
2:30 p.m. Sunday, November 12
Six local military veterans from different conflicts tell their stories, in their own words, in this revival of a production staged in 2016 by Eden Enterprises and KCOS TV as part of the national Telling Project.

• “Nocturnal”
7 p.m. Saturday, December 9; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, December 10
Contemporary dance group Tumbleweed Collective returns with a program of new choreography inspired by the night, exploring themes of hope, dreams, celebration, isolation, romance, heartache, refuge and home.

• “Five Course Love”
7 p.m. Saturday, January 13; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, January 14
Las Cruces’ Scaffolding Theatre Company, which gave us the clever adaptation of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” last season, returns with Gregg Coffin’s grown-up, PG-13 mini-musicals featuring three actors playing 15 characters in five different settings.

• “Amor”
2:30 p.m. Sunday, February 11
The El Paso Society for Musicians of the Future offers another of its thematic programs, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Mezzo-soprano Cherry Duke, guitarist George Salas and violinist Sandra Rivera perform songs and music about love and romance.

• “Hellman v. McCarthy”
2:30 p.m. Sunday, March 11
Camilla Carr directs and acts in this new play by Brian Richard Mori. It is about the legal battle that raged after writer Mary McCarthy accused fellow author Lillian Hellman of lying during an appearance on Dick Cavett’s PBS talk show.

• “Soldadera”
2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 15
Josefina Niggli’s 1938 one-act English-language drama, directed by Hector Serrano, explores how women’s roles in the Mexican Revolution helped changed Mexican society. Seven female soldiers capture a spy and must confront their own demons.

• “Nouveau Chamber”
2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 20
Saxophonist Daniel Rivera and a seven-piece string ensemble will perform his original chamber works. The pieces are influenced by classical, Latin and film music, and explore travel and human history.

Follow the new Jewel Box Series Facebook page at Facebook.com/EPCFJewelBox/ for updates.