Whip Flash 2012: First Nature
Friday, April 27, 7-11pm

WHIP FLASH is a one night only MOPLA (Month of Photography L.A.) event featuring women in photography. The event allows artists to sell their work and meet art lovers, art buyers and curators in person. The evening is a fun and exciting opportunity for aspiring and veteran collectors to acquire work. Stoli, Green Truck, Kogi, Avene, Klorane and a handful of local Santa Monica businesses sponsor WIP FLASH 2012. Music by DJ Roddick. WIP FLASH was created in 2011 by award winning photographer Tatiana Botton and Lauren McCollum as a way to promote women photographers in Los Angeles. 20% of proceeds will benefit Heal the Bay.

Free admission.For more information: 310-463-8026. Broadway Art Space, 929 Broadway

SoCal Premiere of Butoh Icon Ko Murobushi and inkBoat’s “The Crazy Cloud Collection”
Highways Performance Space, Friday & Saturday, April 27 & 28, 8:30pm

Highways Performance Space presents inkBoat with Ko Murobushi in the Southern California premiere of The Crazy Cloud Collection. The Crazy Cloud Collection is a collision. The life of 15th century Buddhist monk and poet Ikkyu Sojun meets modern humanity, and questions arise that provoke and prod the order of our lives. Crazy Cloud is choreographed by Ko Murobushi,known in in Japan as a leading inheritor of Hijikata’s original vision of Butoh, and inkBoat’s Shinichi Iova-Koga, a younger generation artist who has created a hybrid form of performance integrating Butoh dance, physical theater and martial arts. Together, these artists invite the ghost of Ikkyu, known for provocative, biting and unorthodox poetry, to share the stage with them.

Admission: $20 general admission, $15 members/students/seniors. Information: 310-315-1459
Highways Performance Space, @ 18th Street Arts Center, 1651 18th St.

Opera Classic “Tosca,” Vineyard Touring Opera Company, Saturday, April 28, 1 & 8pm

The Vineyard Touring Opera Company presents Puccini’s Tosca, a meaty stew for opera lovers with political intrigue, love, lust, and deceit. The three-act Italian opera, set in 1800 as Rome is threatened by Napoleon’s invasion, was composed by Giacomo Puccini and based on a popular dramatic play that toured Europe in the late 1800s. The opera was first performed in Rome in 1900 and includes some of Puccini’s best-known lyrical arias. Tosca’s dramatic force continues to fascinate, inspiring memorable performances from many of opera’s leading singers and making the work one of most frequently performed operas. Southern California’s Vineyard Touring Opera Company promotes the art of the opera and provides opportunities for professionals, amateurs and young and aspiring talent.

Tickets: $10 general admission, $5 students/children/seniors, $20 reserved seating,$50 VIP seating (includes champagne reception and a $25 tax deductible contribution), Information,
855-575-0005. Santa Monica Bay Woman’s Club, 1210 4th St.

Arnold Schulman’s “Sleeping Ugly,” Santa Monica Playhouse, Saturday, April 28, 8pm & Sunday, April 29, 7pm. Runs through June 17

The Santa Monica Playhouse presents the world premiere of Arnold Schulman’s Sleeping Ugly, a delightfully humorous, intensely adult fairytale about love and lust, longing and belonging, sex and sensibility, parents and pediatrics, and the passion and pain of living with a werewolf. The marvelously funny, touchingly ironic joyous adult cartoon takes audiences on a wild ride, combining the Playhouse’s signature Commedia-Circus style with physical thea trix, multi-media design and live underscore.

Tickets: $25 general admission, $21.50 students/teachers/seniors/members of the military, $17.50 for groups of 10 or more, Information: 310-394-9779. Santa Monica Playhouse, The Other Space, 1211 4th St.

Uncle Daddy performs Benefit Concert for Elemental Strings. Sunday, April 29, 2pm

Uncle Daddy, led by Los Angeles’s leading alternative strings teachers, Robert Anderson and Jacob Szekely, performs a benefit concert for Elemental Strings, a non-profit that provides young string players the opportunity to develop and strengthen their musical skills and love for music. Anderson and Szekely are co-founders of String Project LA, southern California’s premiere creative strings program that teaches students to play music of all styles, from jazz, to hip hop. A prolific band that breaks molds and creates a unique stir in the LA music scene.

Tickets: Advanced: $20 general, $10 students. On-site: $25 general, $15 students.Informatiom.
800-595-4TIX. First Presbyterian Church of Santa Monica, 1220 Second St.

Xylotopia, Kelly Berg

Opening Reception: Kelly Berg’s “AMAZONIA,” Frank Pictures Gallery, Sunday, April 29, 6:30-9:30pm. On view through May 28

In emerging artist Kelly Berg’s second solo show, AMAZONIA, a controlled chaos emerges from the overall compositions, which are formed by an intricate series of acrylic and ink layers. Through her painting process, Kelly is interested in expanding the language of abstraction through the use of pattern, shapes, and pictorial imagery, including self-portraits. These paintings capture the process of sorting through this imagery from an autobiographical point of view.

Free admission.Information: 310-828-0211 Frank Pictures Gallery, Bergamot Station A5, 2525 Michigan Ave.