Erin Keane

Louisville's CenterStage theater company continues its season this week with the regional premiere of the acclaimed rock musical “Next to Normal.” The show explores the impact of mental illness on a suburban family.

Brian Yorkey and Tom Kitt’s “Next to Normal” opened on Broadway in 2009 and won three Tony Awards, but when it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2010, it joined the ranks of only a handful of musicals to earn that distinction.

Acclaimed experimental artist Eve Sussman will give a free lecture on her work Thursday at 21C Museum Hotel. The event is produced in partnership with Kentucky School of Art visiting artist program. The talk starts at 7 p.m. with a reception for the artist to follow.

In “Time Flies,” four time travelers wander from their births back to the beginning of the universe and forward to the end of time. Along the way, they stage a hip hop tribute to a famous clock maker and engage in a bout of bare-knuckle boxing.

In other words, it’s a typical absurdist Le Petomane show. Co-producing artistic director Kyle Ware says this play is a study in anachronism, with philosophical undercurrents.

The Kentucky Arts Council announced today that they will continue to match funds raised by arts organizations through the online project crowdfunding platform Power2Give. The council will match funds, up to $10,000 per project, in fiscal year 2013.

Actors Theatre of Louisville will kick off its new season next week with a contemporary production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet," directed by Louisville native and former Actors Theatre apprentice Tony Speciale.

Wendell Berry, Helen Keller, Malcolm X and Eleanor Roosevelt are just a few of the prominent figures whose portraits have been painted by artist Robert Shetterly for his Americans Who Tell the Truth series, a portrait exhibit celebrating courageous citizens who have spoken out for democracy and human rights.

A new book about Kentucky’s minor league baseball teams is out. Written by journalist Katya Cengel,  “Bluegrass Baseball” (University of Nebraska Press) is an intimate look inside the 2010 baseball season, starring Kentucky’s minor league teams: the Lexington Legends, the Bowling Green Hot Rods, the Florence Freedom and the Louisville Bats. The book documents the highs and lows of the players, groundskeepers, managers and fans of the game’s smaller outfits. 

The Kentucky Opera announced today that the organization ended the year with a budget surplus. This is the third season under general director David Roth that the Opera has come out ahead.

Dysfunction in the English royal family plays out against a backdrop of treason and civil war in “The Lion in Winter." Actor's Choice theater company opens James Goldman’s award-winning historical drama this week. 

The year is 1183, and King Henry II has called a Christmas court. He’s allowed his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, out of prison for the occasion. He needs to name an heir to secure an alliance with France. Will it be Richard (later known as the Lionheart), treacherous Geoffrey or Henry's favorite, John? 

The city of Jeffersonville, Ind., has formed a study committee on public art. The committee will lay the groundwork for a new public art initiative. City council member-at-large Nathan Samuel hopes a public art initiative will help rally Jeffersonville citizens and leaders around a positive cause.

“I think Jeffersonville suffers from a self-esteem problem," says Samuel. "We don’t give ourselves enough credit for what we have here.”