for the ARTS record
Sustainable Nantucket Film Series: "Subdivide and Conquer" Sustainable Nantucket has pursued a wide variety of ventures since its inception - including founding the Nantucket Housing Office and the Nantucket Shellfish Association. But public programming is new for the organization, which is bringing documentaries to the island in consort with the Atheneum and the Nantucket Historical Association. The documentaries "have themes in line with Sustainable Nantucket's mission, which is economic sustainability (i.e. a downtown that's not just for the tourists) as well as agricultural and fishery sustainability. They also take into account environmental issues dealing with beach erosion and climate control," said Atheneum Programming Director Amy Jenness. This month, series will focuses on city planning and building issues, beginning with "Subdivide and Conquer." Narrated by Dennis Weaver (who played McCloud on television), the film looks at the consequences of suburban sprawl, especially as it is driven by the notions of an endless frontier and rugged individualism."

The Peacheaters Sounds like: The Allman Brothers When: Friday and Saturday, April 6 and 7, 10 p.m. - 1 a.m. Where: Chicken Box, 14 Dave. Street

When: Wednesday, April 4, 7-9 p.m. Where: Nantucket Atheneum, 1 India Street

Cost: Free

For more information, please call 228-1110.

Books to Film: Memoirs of a Geisha The Nantucket Arts Council and Atheneum's books-to-film series, now in its third year, invites a community member with a related specialty to introduce each film. This week, Steve and Peggi Godwin, who lived in Japan for many years, will introduce the film "Memoirs of a Geisha." Based on a 2005 book of the same name, the story "begins in 1929 as an impoverished nine-year-old named Chiyo from a fishing village is sold to a geisha house in Kyoto's Gion district," according to the Atheneum. "She rises to prominence as a renowned geisha and enters a society of wealth, privilege, and political intrigue. But as World War II looms, Japan and the geisha's world are forever changed by the onslaught of history."

When: Saturday, April 7, 7-9 p.m. Where: Nantucket Atheneum (Great Hall), 1

India Street

Cost: Free

For more information, please call 228-1110.

Pinter on Nantucket This week, Theatre Workshop of Nantucket stages its performance of "The Dumb Waiter" along with another of Pinter's one acts, "A Kind of Alaska."

Written in 1957, "The Dumb Waiter" focuses on two hit men, one older (Ben) and one younger (Gus). They are thrown together in a basement by the powers that-be to await the orders on their hit. Chris Witte plays Ben, and Byrne fills Gus' shoes. "Pinter slipped out of his own style to write 'A Kind of Alaska,' and that's what intrigued me," said Byrne of the one-act he chose to compliment "The Dumb Waiter." Pinter based "A Kind of Alaska" on the case studies of Oliver Sacks. Written in 1982, it is the only one of Pinter's works that credits any source other than his own imagination - making it something of an anomaly. The story follows a woman suffering from Encephalitis lethargica, who wakes to find that she has only retained memories of her childhood, and that her sister and her sister's husband have been taking care of her for three decades. It is, at its core, the story about transitioning from one state of consciousness to the next.

When: Through April 14; Wed. - Sat., 8 p.m.;

Sunday matinee on April 1, 2 p.m. Where: United Methodist Church (upstairs) Cost: $15 For more information, please call 228-4305. Who's playing?