My faithful classical-music-in-schools-zealot correspondent, Robert Bullwinkel, dropped me a note today about cellist Zuill Bailey, the guest soloist for this weekend's Fresno Philharmonic concerts -- I have a story in this morning's 7 section about the program -- and his visit this morning to Kingsburg:

I just saw Zuill Bailey perform for students at Rafer Johnson Junior High in Kingsburg as a part of the Fresno Philharmonic's Concertos for Kids program. Mr. Bailey wowed the students with his performance of Bach's Cello Suites, but really connected with them when he spoke of the misconceptions about classical music. Bailey said that when he walks through the airport wearing shades and a black leather jacket with his black cello case strapped to his back, he is often asked what rock band he plays for. People are disappointed when he says that he is a classical musician, but when he played musical examples from popular movies, the students quickly realized that they did have a strong connection with orchestral music.

The students all came from classes taught by teachers in the Keeping Score Education program, a project of the Fresno County Office of Education and the San Francisco Symphony. This week, they studied Bach and listened to his music performed by today's special guest. I also heard the Phil rehearsing the Tchaikovsky Suite last night. It's going to be a GREAT concert!

From our 7 Things to Do list:

It's a long-standing tradition for the Fresno Art Museum's Council of 100 to designate a female artist of the year. The honor this time around goes to Joan Tanner, whose "as is: installation 09" runs through Jan. 10. Today's opening reception includes an appearance by Tanner, who modifies ordinary objects and building materials into exaggerated, arcane sculptural elements.

5-7 p.m. Friday / Fresno Art Museum, 2233 N. First St. / fresnoartmuseum.org, (559) 441-4221 / $5, free admission Sundays

If you can't make the reception, Tanner will give a lecture 2 p.m. Saturday in the Bonner Auditorium.

I swung by the museum yesterday as Tanner worked to get the exhibition ready. You can read about it in my upcoming Sunday Spotlight column.

The stars aligned at the Star Palace last night for Ashley Taylor and, by extension, the strong inaugural performance of the Organic Theater Factory.

For years, the hard-working Taylor has tackled one character role after another on the Fresno community theater scene -- from Mary Sunshine in "Chicago" to Gertrude the Bird in "Seussical" -- as a solid performer. But something special happens in Jason Robert Brown's intimate musical "The Last 5 Years." As Cathy Hiatt, the struggling actress whose story of a disillusioned marriage is told in reverse chronological disorder, Taylor gives a transluscent performance. Her voice is absolutely gorgeous -- there were times when I closed my eyes and thought about how often it matched the level of Sherie Rene Scott's version on the original cast recording.

Just as impressive is the way Taylor mines the emotional territory of her character, never overplaying the sentiment or joking up the giddy moments, always relating on a fiercely human level. She's a wonderful fit for the role, and she gives an already moving play even more of an impact.

My singling Taylor out for special notice isn't in any way meant to slight her partner on stage, Peter Allwine, or the production overall, which has a scrappy, low-key charm. It's just that when it comes to Taylor, it seems this is one of those rare times for an actor when everything truly clicks -- performance, type, spirit -- and it's a beautiful thing to behold.

I caught up with Anthony Taylor, artistic director of the new Organic Theater Factory, to ask him some questions about the inaugural performance tonight at the Star Palace at Warnors Theatre. (The show continues various nights through Nov. 27.) Here's the interview:

As far as you know, will this be the first theater production at the Star Palace?

I'm not sure if this is the first theater production in this space, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's a very interesting space though and part of the mission of the company is to find new places to produce theater in Fresno. It doesn't have to be in a traditional theater to be enjoyable and in some cases the unique nature of the space can add to the overall product.

How will you use that space? How many seats?

We will be seating 100 people in the space and using the stage that exists there for concerts as the primary space for acting. Our director, Danielle Jorn, has really brought a fresh perspective to using space in exciting ways too. The first thing she told me was that we were going to need a projector, and so we are using a projector to enhance scenes and speak to where characters are throughout the show. In the future I'd love to do a show with the large floor to ceiling windows as the backdrop and the skyline in the background, but we'll save that for another show.

Bland, bland, bland. "The Wedding Singer" is not the worst show to ever travel through the Saroyan as part of the Best of Broadway series, but it certainly didn't show much sparkle. I saw the Wednesday night performance and was mostly unimpressed with the acting, music and storyline. (The singing and staging were more than adequate, and the dancing had a few stellar moments.) This adaptation of the popular Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore movie crammed in as many '80s references as it could, but it lacked the film's quirky, offbeat charm. The main characters, Robbie Hart (J. Michael Zygo) and Julia Sullivan (Jillian Zygo), who are husband and wife in real life, had some moments of sweetness, but there was little comic chemistry.

There's only one character who breaks through: that of Linda (Jennifer Gottlieb), the over-the-top fiancee who dumps the wedding-singer main character, Robbie. Stomping out in a Madonna-bustier-inspired wedding dress get-up, she delivers her "A Note From Linda" with a husky, grunting, full-of-herself, vocal-onslaught acerbity-- all the while offering satirical shades of the Material Girl. Later in the (admittedly better) second act, Linda shows up again, this time to steal the show once again with her over-the-top, acrobatic sexuality. If the creative team had figured out a way to extend Linda's appeal to the rest of the show, this could have been a raucous trip back to an earlier decade. Instead, it just sort of fades into the dustbin of Broadway history.

UPDATE 5 p.m. 11/19: We finally have a winner: Steve Hernandez. (Please, folks, if you enter these giveaway contests, be sure to check your email to see if you won!!!)

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Fresno welcomes a new local theater company Thursday when the Organic Theater Factory opens its first production, the two-person musical "The Last Five Years." It plays 8 p.m. at the Star Palace at Warnors Theatre on various nights through Nov. 27. We have TWO tickets to give away to Beehive readers for opening night. For the winner, I'll pick one comment at random among those posted to this entry. You have until 9:30 a.m. Thursday to enter. Winners will be notified in an e-mail, so leave a real one. No repeat comments. You're ineligible if you've won something in the past 30 days. Complete rules after the jump.

In the meantime, check out this promo video about the play:

There were lots of disappointed people this morning when tickets to Andrea Bocelli's concert Dec. 8 at the Saroyan Theatre sold out within minutes.

I got a call from a very disappointed Anita Newman of Clovis, who had asked her caregiver, Diane Lopez, to stand in line for her at the convention center box office. Lopez got there at 7 a.m. for the 10 a.m. sale, not realizing that many people (I've heard estimates ranging from 30 to 100) had been camping out since the night before. Only about 15 tickets were sold in person before the 500 available seats were gone.

"I could just cry," Newman said.

Tickets were available both at the convention center and also online, and that's where most of them were snapped up, said opera general director Ronald D. Eichman. The opera has received inquiries from all over the country regarding tickets, he said. Bocelli is only performing in six North American cities on his current tour (Fort Lauderdale, Toronto, East Rutherford, N.J., Fresno, Las Vegas and Anaheim), and his Fresno concert is in by far the smallest venue.

The intimate nature of the Fresno concert is because of a scheduling change that, at Bocelli's request, required a shift in venue from the 12,000-seat Save Mart Center to the 2,400-seat Saroyan Theatre.

Not that I'd ever want to disparage the personal hygiene of the hard-working cast members in Theatre Ventoux's "12 Angry Men," but thanks to director Lisa Taber's intimate staging and the play's evocative description of the cramped and heated quarters in this theater classic, I felt as if I were close enough to smell each and every one. This is less a trip to the theater than an actual camping-out experience in the jury room. I felt as if I'd been led into the chamber and told to crouch against the wall just before the jury arrived to begin deliberations.

Such intimacy works wonderfully for this stern, earnest play. It's one thing to watch "12 Angry Men" it in a large, proscenium theater sitting a fair distance from the stage. It's another to be almost on top of the actors.

This is a scrappy, bare production, but it also has a sense of authority to it -- and I'm impressed with the preparation of the actors. For long stretches of the show, I felt as if I was eavesdropping on real conversations, which is a tribute to the acting and direction.

Bee photographer Darrell Wong got some GREAT shots last night of the "So You Think You Can Dance" tour at the Save Mart Center, including this picture-perfect view of finalist Evan Kasprzak in mid-air:

You can see a gallery of Darrell's other photos from the show here.

As for the audience at the Save Mart, all I can say is there must be some audience members with extremely hoarse voices this morning, considering all the yelling for Fresno's Jason Glover. The first time he was introduced, there was this huge, whooshing roar from the crowd that sounded like something you'd hear at an airport. After sustained applause, he said, "My name is Jason. I'm a contemporary dancer from ... "

The crowd bellowed: "FRESNO!"

He was obviously tickled at the reception. Jason told me earlier in the day that he'd been excited for this night all tour, and he marveled at the fact that his former dance teacher, Sue Sampson-Delana, actually closed down The Dance Studio of Fresno to mark the tour date. ("The whole day," he said. "That's big.") Most of the students were at the concert, it seems, more than 200 of them, all sitting in a prime section close to the stage. They held orange signs that spelled out "JASON" and a big yellow one that read "Glover Lovers."

Just got home from the nearly three-hour "So You Think You Can Dance" performance. Jason Glover had a grand time. His smile lit up the Save Mart, and you could tell that he was slightly awed by the roar of the crowd at every mention of his name. It isn't every day that you perform in an arena for thousands of people AND have your very own cheering section complete with five fans spelling out the letters of your first name. (There was also a sign that read "Glover Lovers.")

What did you think of the show? I'll check in tomorrow morning with my own thoughts.