In The Arts

Garden Party benefit for LOCA

Laguna Outreach for Community Arts invites the public to a garden party from 6 to 8 p.m. May 14 at Madison Square Garden and Café, 320 N. Coast Hwy.

Proceeds support the arts education programs provided by LOCA throughout the community.

Festivities include music, artists at work, opportunity drawings and a live auction by Mike Tauber. Items up for bid include art by Sandra Jones Campbell, Mada Leach and John Barber. Home-cooked hors d’oeuvres will be served, along with wine pourings by Alethenia Vineyard. Garden attire, hats and gloves are encouraged.

Admission is $45 per person, and advance reservations are required. Call LOCA at (949) 363-4700 or e-mail LOCAarts@yahoo.com. For more information, visit www.LOCAarts.org.

Feel the spirit of LagunaTunes

LagunaTunes spring concerts, Feel the Spirit, will be at 7:30 p.m. May 21 and 7 p.m. May 22 at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 428 Park Ave.

The show will feature 45 voices from the community and a mix of classical, gospel and show tune pieces.

For information, call Patti Jo Kiraly at (949) 874-4970.

Tours go inside home studios

Five Laguna Beach artists will open their homes to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 22 for an Artists Home Tour offered by Laguna Beach Art Tours.

The group will see art demonstrations (including glass blowing) and be able to buy original artwork.

This tour includes the home art studios of: Brian Allan (abstract painting on metal); John Barber (hand-blown art glass); Dedre Bickler-Sines (original oil painting); Jesse J. Miller (mixed media/surf art); and Skip Roma (Chinese brush painting).

The private tours allow artists to demonstrate and discuss their artwork and give guests an insider’s view of the Laguna Beach art scene.

Tickets are $85 per person and include: transportation, a tour guide, hors d’oeuvres, a printed itinerary, a Laguna souvenir plus an afternoon reception in the hills of Laguna Beach at Sunset House (courtesy of Allan and Roma). The tour begins at Studio Arts Gallery.

Advance purchase is required; no tickets will be sold day of event. For details and to buy tickets visit LagunaBeachArtTours.weebly.com or call (714) 270-0388.

Czech film shown by group

The Laguna Beach Film Society will present the Czech film “Beauty in Trouble” at 7 p.m. May 20 at South Coast Cinema.

In the film, Marcela is a shrewd mother of two whose Prague home has been damaged by the 2002 floods. Her husband is jailed for stealing cars to make ends meet, and she has had to move her family in with her loathsome stepfather. Then she encounters a possible savior in the form of a significantly older and wealthier émigré.

Tickets to the film are $15. Or, for $20, enjoy the film preceded by a 6 p.m. reception at the Wells Fargo Bank Community Room, 260 Ocean Ave.

Dubin’s ‘Submit’ paintings at Blake

Nine new paintings from Southern California artist Jorg Dubin are on display at Peter Blake Gallery, 435 Ocean Ave., through May 30.

The exhibit, titled “Submit,” features subjects and personalities from the world of mixed martial arts fighting.

“These paintings explore the entire scope of the MMA cultural phenomena “” the mind set of the fans, the psychology of the combatants and the vibrant spectacle of the competition,” Dubin said. “In MMA, to ‘submit’ is akin to giving up, to saying ‘uncle,’ to lose. However, as a metaphor for human existence, one ‘submits’ to life’s challenges and yet does not succumb.”

For more information, visit peterblakegallery.com.

Meet ‘Noir’ authors at Playhouse event

Playhouse Women, a support group of the Laguna Playhouse, will host a special afternoon of murder and mystery with the authors of “Orange County Noir” from 3 to 6 p.m. May 17 at the playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road.

Author Patricia McFall will moderate a panel that includes Mary Castillo, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Dan Duling, Gordon McAlpine, Rob Roberge and Nathan Walpow, who will discuss their stories and take questions from the audience.

Afterward, the authors will sign books in the lobby, where champagne and appetizers will be served. Laguna Beach Books will sell books at the event.

Tickets are $30 per person and include a raffle ticket (additional raffle tickets are available for $10 each). All proceeds benefit the playhouse.

Reservations must be made by Monday.

For more information, call (949) 497-2787 ext. 216 or e-mail alarson@lagunaplayhouse.com.

Reckard presents original jazz

Local musician Dan Reckard will perform Green Blues, a Night of Modern Jazz at 8 p.m. May 14 at the Neighborhood Congregational Church, 340 St. Ann’s Drive.

A pianist-composer, Reckard will lead 10 musicians “” a string quartet, jazz combo and vocalist “” in a program of original compositions and arrangements that echo past jazz standards, but pulse with rhythms of the present.

“I’m excited to premiere my new set, ‘Green Blues,’ in Laguna,” Reckard said. “You’ll see that the songs and titles reflect my experiences growing up here. I hope some of my old friends will come out and support me.

“Maybe they’ll remember the last time I premiered a piece here when I was an eighth-grader in the Thurston concert band. I think you’ll hear a difference.”

Reckard is a junior at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where, in January, he served as musical director of “From Bebop to Doo-wop to Hip Hop,” part of the university’s Visions and Voices arts and humanities initiative.

Local audiences enjoyed his weekend performances last summer at Zinc Café and earlier at the high school’s Max and Mark scholarship benefit concerts, and the town’s three art festivals.

Proceeds will help defray Reckard’s continuing music studies in Brazil, which start in June.

Twenty percent of proceeds will also benefit the south Orange County Surfrider Foundation chapter.

Tickets sold at the door are $18 for adults, $15 for students. Refreshments and CDs will be sold during intermission and after the concert.

An all-inclusive VIP package, including signed CD, beverage, dessert, and reserved seating will be available for $40.