Spotlight: Central Florida's Weekly Arts, Culture and Entertainment Podcast

The play “The Guys” was written by journalist Anne Nelson. It’s based on her true story of helping a bereaved fire captain write eulogies for the firefighters he’d lost on 9/11.

The 3rd annual Orlando Out Fest runs September 10 -13. It’s a weekend-long performing arts and film festival featuring local LGBTQ+ stories, artists and history.

"Swamp Legends" is the theme of this weekend's History After Dark event, featuring drinks, games and a hunt for the elusive Florida cryptid called the Skunk Ape.

Sometimes you find art in unexpected places. Orlando's Hourglass Brewing is one. You could say it’s growing from an Artistic Acorn, the nom de guerre of curator Alex Ramirez.

Yezdan Givci's physical-slash-digital – or phygital – book is called “Journey,” a narrative coloring book for kids and adults with original music accompanying every page.

Orlando Story Club is holding a live storytelling competition the evening of August 5. What storytellers say and how they say it is up to each participant.

This year, Palm Bay will see its first celebration of Emancipation Day, when Caribbean nations were freed from British imperial slavery in 1833. Guyanese chef Hollis Barclay tells the story through food.

Winter Park Playhouse has been rebuilt from the ground up, with a public Grand Opening slated for July 17th after Tuesday's official ribbon-cutting.

The Morse Museum is celebrating July 4th and America 250 with events that highlight arts accessibility, music and a special exhibition of some quintessentially American items.

Caleb Wiles creates magic tricks from the ground up and performs them for audiences, as he's done on TV shows like “Penn & Teller’s Fool Us." He'll be at Magic Studio on I-Drive this weekend.

A locally written musical set in New York during the 1920s Harlem Renaissance and centered on Langston Hughes' poetry is coming to Judson's Live, opening on Juneteenth.

A new play from a Central Florida playwright examines trauma, grief and recovery through the eyes of a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Make Music Orange County is a Central Florida project that aims, for one day, to blanket the whole county in music performed by the community that’s free to the community.

The Central Florida Public Media Tiny Desk Showcase is back, with live and local musical artists chosen by you. The five bands will perform Thursday, June 4th at the Beacham in downtown Orlando.

A global play writing competition based in Orlando is seeking new works written in Spanish. Open Scene, the arts organization behind the competition, is accepting submissions until May 31st.

Central Florida Vocal Arts has a program for underserved kids from Orange and Osceola County School Districts that stretches into the group's Summer Institute.

The Central Florida Community Arts Choir is offering the classic cross-country road trip vibe without the gas prices or back-seat bickering at this weekend’s show, “Road Trip: USA.”

Yezdan Givci's physical-slash-digital – or phygital – book is called “Journey,” a narrative coloring book for kids and adults with original music accompanying every page.

For Central Floridians who relish a good pickle, the news is sweet, not sour, with Pickle Fest. It's an all-local event with bands, creators, and of course, special pickle dishes.

Valencia College Theater is exploring the importance of art by proposing worlds where art does not exist in this weekend's series of five-minute one-act plays called “Art/World Without Art.”

This year’s 35th annual Florida Film Festival starts April 10th at the Enzian Theater with more than 160 movies on offer, originating from around the globe and in our backyard.

Author Jaroslav Kalfař is returning to UCF to discuss his experiences and his novel, "Spaceman of Bohemia." It was recently made into a film starring Adam Sandler.

In his Orlando Museum of Art exhibition, “A Day of Four Sunsets,” artist Dennis Scholl uses the space race to explore collective memory - moments experienced culture-wide.

MamboYa Dance Company's owners are both dancers and veterans who aim to give back by building a sense of community and joy with weekly social dances.

In an outdoor piano performance called a MindTravel Experience, composer Murray Hidary plays music on a beach or in a park and the audience hears the music through headphones.

In the history center’s hands-on Animationland exhibit, visitors can bring their own characters to life and explore animation's local legacy at Disney.

Playwrights’ Round Table is a Central Florida-based theater group that specializes in producing new works, and they offer two monthly judgment-free workshops for playwrights, experienced and aspiring.

The Immerse event takes over ten city blocks downtown, with hundreds of performances and interactive experiences featuring global arts groups as well as local artists.

Unexpected generational family connections were unveiled in Sanford along with a commemorative quilt honoring historic Goldsboro, one of the first Black townships in the US.

The City of Orlando is celebrating this 100th anniversary of Black History Month celebrations with arts and cultural events.

The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida has unveiled "Hope and Humanity," telling the stories of ten Central Floridians who survived the Holocaust.

Opera Orlando's "Silent Night" is based on true events during World War One. It examines the spontaneous Christmas Eve ceasefire of 1914, when music replaced gunfire on the battlefield.

Arts and culture in the City of Winter Park takes center stage on the first weekend of February, during the “Winter Park Arts Weekend,” dubbed “A Tapestry of Experiences.”

The play is written and performed by Matthew Moore, a professional actor diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s disease. He wants to share his patient experience.

The Solaria Singers professional choir performs a holiday concert at the Orlando Museum of Art, based around the culturally shared concept of light emerging from dark.

This year's family-friendly Violectric show features signature musical mashups, pics with Santa and Mrs. Claus, guest vocalists, and two local school orchestras joining the band onstage.

For the 28th year, Southern Winds Theater is bringing the “One-Man ‘A Christmas Carol’” to the stage. Actor David McElroy plays all 37 characters in the story.

The play makes its public debut in Orlando, with a costume contest for Orange County Public Schools students that will see the winning design hit the stage on Broadway.