Arts & Culture

Ballet Idaho premieres Swan Lake tonight. Here’s what you need to know about this classic ballet. There’s Prince Siegfried. He falls in love with a beautiful woman named Odette, who’s actually trapped in the body of a swan.

Phyllis Rothwell Affrunti dances the part of Odette. The lead dancer calls her character “fragile,” a beautiful creature that has been imprisoned as a swan by the evil wizard Von Rothbart. “She’s waiting for true love to come to save her,” explains Affrunti. “It’s the only thing that can.”

Five years ago Boise Mayor David Bieter proposed a $60 million trolley for downtown Boise.  When federal funds for the project didn't come through, the project was put on indefinite hold. 

The Treasure Valley actually had an electric railway that linked Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Nampa, Caldwell, and Middleton many years ago. That story unfolds in a new pictorial history book called the “Treasure Valley’s Electric Railway.” Barbara Perry Bauer is one of the authors and she says the trolley started more than 100 years ago.

A new farmers market opens Saturday in Idaho’s capitol city. The Boise Farmers Market comes on the heels of a big dust-up with the city’s long-standing market. Now, each side says Boise can support both markets.

Graphic Depictions is a new play that opens Wednesday at Boise Contemporary Theater (BCT.) Cleveland based playwright Eric Coble created this one-character show. Coble tends to speak in metaphors. Ask him why a nationally known playwright would premier new work at Boise Contemporary Theater. He calls a premier a birth.

Treefort Music Fest wrapped up in the early morning hours Monday. More than 260 indie and emerging bands performed at the four day festival. Festival director Eric Gilbert is calling the event's second year a big success, despite being exhausted.

"Losing my voice a little bit, not a lot of sleep, but I'm feeling good -- body's sore," Gilbert says.

The Treefort Music Fest is underway in Boise and goes through this weekend. More than 260 indie and emerging bands will perform during the festival including local acts. Grandma Kelsey is one of them.

Treefort Music Fest gets underway tonight in Boise. Local rock band Finn Riggins will kick off the second annual festival and bands will play into the early morning hours. The four day event will bring indie and emerging bands to a dozen venues in downtown. 

Frankie Barnhill has been covering the lead-up to Treefort, and she talked with Scott Graf about why Treefort is becoming a big deal for the Idaho music scene.

Organizers of the Sun Valley Film Festival are calling this year’s event a success. Ticket sales nearly doubled from last year and eight awards were given to filmmakers.

Director Sean Baker received the Festival’s highest honor, the Vision Award, for his film Starlet. It’s about an unlikely friendship between a young aspiring actress and an elderly widow. 

Sun Valley is no stranger to film. Several movies have been shot in the Wood River Valley, including 1985’s “Pale Rider” starring Clint Eastwood.  Last year, after finishing his latest story, screenwriter Ted Grennan came up with an idea that would add to the local film scene.    

“I really didn’t know what I was going to do next and a friend called and I said ‘What about a film festival in Sun Valley,’ and he said ‘there are film festivals everywhere.’ And I said ‘there is not one in Sun Valley’ and he said you might be on to something,” explains Grennan.

A Nampa man has taken his skills with computers and turned a children’s bedtime story into a new interactive e-book.  The work is a labor of love, literally.  The book is a legacy for his daughter who was the inspiration for the main character.

Randy Jamison reads the interactive e-book “Jubitron: The Girl Robot” with his nine-year-old daughter Jubilee.  “Isn’t this your favorite page?” asks Jamison.  “Yeah, it’s another one of my favorites,” says Jubilee.

Last June was a big month for Cody Gittings and Stephen Heleker. For one, the Boise filmmakers formed a media company shortly after Gittings graduated from Boise State. And two, the pair received the green light to pursue their most ambitious project yet: turning “Smoke,” a story by local author and professor Alan Heathcock – into a short film.

Scholars often look to Abraham Lincoln as one of the most important figures in American history. Memorials to the famous president continue almost 150 years after he was killed, including last year’s blockbuster film bearing his name.

Monday, Idaho memorialized Lincoln with a special ceremony, commemorating the sesquicentennial of the day he signed the bill designating the Idaho Territory. 

Most of the films you’ll see this weekend at the Family of Woman Film Festival in Sun Valley come from overseas. The festival will feature films from Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo, and India. Only one film comes from the U.S. The Invisible War, which exposed the sexual assaults in the U.S. military. That documentary was recently nominated for an Academy Award. 

It’s Wednesday, so that means a new edition of Boise Weekly is out. Today’s paper is the latest work under the new editor Zach Hagadone.  

Hagadone has been reading the Boise Weekly for nearly 15 years. At 32, he's worked with the Associated Press, Idaho Business Review, and even started his own paper in his native Sandpoint.  In a recent interview with KBSX, Hagadone told us that alternative weeklies have been somewhat insulated in the changing world of print journalism.

If you eat at Rupert’s at the Hotel McCall, you could soon be indulging in some Oscar-worthy food. Chef Gary Kucy received word last week that he is a semifinalist in the James Beard Foundation Awards. That's kind of like being nominated by the Academy.

Chef Gary Kucy has worked with a number of James Beard finalists throughout his career. But he was surprised and humbled to hear that this year, he is one of them.