What’s on where around Luton: Listings, July 1 edition

WEDNESDAY JULY 1

Adults with learning difficulties art and craft sessions. Every Wednesday morning 10.30am to 12.30pm and Saturday morning 11am to 1pm at Arttrend, Arundel Road, Luton. 
Social and creative activity for adults with learning difficulties, engaging in all types of art and craft work such as painting in acrylics, papier mache, salt dough, cross stitch, rug making etc. 
Please see the website www.arttrend.co.uk and go to Art ALD, then see the gallery of work already done.
Tel 07794987796 if you would like more details.
10.30am to 12.30pm Wednesdays, 11am to 1pm Saturdays – but can come and go at any time. 
£6 per session including materials and refreshments.

After a year of sell-out shows across five continents and 30 countries which celebrated the release of her acclaimed album, The Changing Lights, Grammy-nominated, platinum-selling singer Stacey Kent and her band return to The Stables, Wavendon with a fresh programme of standards, Bossa Novas and originals from the pens of husband and saxophonist, Jim Tomlinson, and the acclaimed novelist, Kazuo Ishiguro. The show starts at 8pm. Tickets £21.50. Call 01908 280800.

THURSDAY JULY 2

Luton’s newest contemporary venue, Connors Café Bar at The Hat Factory, is to open every Thursday and Friday evening from tonight. The evenings will feature cocktails and live jazz and swing. More information about Connors Café Bar can be found at www.facebook.com/Connorscafebar.

Nominated for Best Show at 2014 Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards, Alex Horne brings his curious contraption to The Stables, Wavendon at 8pm. Remember the board game Mousetrap and that Honda advert where all the car parts collided to make a thing happen? In this unprecedented comedy experience, you can watch Alex Horne attempt something similar in just 60 minutes. He’ll have just one chance. Three-time Countdown champion, award winning comedian and leader of comedy-jazz juggernaut The Horne Section, Alex Horne is one of the UK’s most original and inventive comics. Tickets cost £15. Call 01908 280800.

FRIDAY JULY 3

Join the Basement Gaming Club at The Hat Factory, Luton for a new fantasy games night, to be held every Friday on the second floor of The Hat Factory. A variety of gaming tables including Magic the Gathering, Games Workshop (40k, Bloodbowl, etc) and more. Bring your own refreshments.
If you would like to book a gaming table please contact [email protected].
There will be tournaments and leagues with prizes, so come along have fun and happy gaming. Age 18+. Entry £1.

St Joseph’s Scout Group presents The Jungle Book at the Scout Hut in Blundell Road at 7pm with help from the Griffin Players. Refreshments will be available. Tickets cost £5 for adults and £3 for children. Call Bridget on 07981 866543.

Christiane Kubrick’s Childwickbury Arts Fair 2015. See page 22 for details.

Jarrod Lawson is arguably soul music’s brightest rising star. Last October tickets flew out of the door for his UK debut at London’s Ronnie Scott’s. Like his heroes Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder, this blue-eyed soul-jazzer is a multi-talented, multi-faceted artist and whether he sings and plays funk, folk, r’n’b, rock or jazz, “Everything he touches”, says one critic, “turns to soul”. He comes to The Stables at Wavendon at 8pm. Tickets cost £15. Call 01908 280800.

SATURDAY JULY 4

Shamima’s Mehendi Workshop every Saturday 1pm to 3pm. Learn how to create your own beautiful mehendi style artwork in acrylics on various surfaces such as card, canvases, boxes, phone covers. www.shamimasmehendi.webs.com

St Joseph’s Scout Group presents The Jungle Book at the scout hut in Blundell Road at 7pm with help from the Griffin Players. Refreshments will be available. Tickets cost £5 for adults and £3 for children. Call Bridget on 07981 866543.

Christiane Kubrick’s Childwickbury Arts Fair 2015.

Luton Business Improvement District (BID) will be staging its first street entertainment event. The first Luton Live Street Entertainment event will be held between 11am and 3pm with a host of artists performing live music, comedy and street theatre in the BID area. Many of the performances will have an American twist – coinciding with July 4 being Independence Day in the USA and also UK National Independent Retailers’ Day in the UK – celebrating the importance of independent businesses on the high street. The roving street entertainment will take place in key parts of the BID area including Bute Street, The Mall, Market Hill and St George’s Square. Acts so far confirmed include Rock ‘n’ Roll trio Lucille who recently signed to Hoodwink Recordings and have just released their debut album. Vintage vocalist Rebecca Jayne will entertain visitors with a repertoire of swing and timeless classics. Street entertainer Charlie Wheelz will bring the glamour and energy of the American diner with her comedy roller waitress act. The day will be compered by Dapper Dan who will introduce the acts and interact with the audiences throughout the day.

A pulsating mix of intellectual energy and comic zest comes to the Grove Theatre, Dunstable at 7pm with Man and Superman. Upon its first publication in 1903, Man and Superman was considered to be unstageable due to its length and its nature as a play ripe with ideas. Now, the National Theatre has masterfully brought George Bernard Shaw’s classic to life with this exhilarating production. This is your golden opportunity to witness a rarely performed classic brought to life on stage in an encore broadcast. Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter, The English Patient, Schindler’s List) stars as the celebrated bachelor, Jack Tanner. Tickets are £15 with discounts available for Friends of the Grove Theatre and concessions. For more information or to book tickets, call box office on 01582 60 20 80 or visit www.grovetheatre.co.uk.

Swing has always fascinated Emma Johnson because it’s such exciting music to play on the clarinet, which can evoke infectious joy from its upper register and conjure a deep soulful melancholy from its lower. Emma was a great favourite of the late John Dankworth, who composed several pieces especially for her and she has appeared in concert with Cleo Laine. In Clarinet Goes to Town she’ll explore some of the elements – ragtime, cakewalks, popular song, habanera, Negro Spirituals – which fused together in this explosion of popular culture in the 20th century, reaching its apotheosis in the music of the King of Swing, Benny Goodman. Emma plays at The Stables, Wavendon from 2.30pm. Tickets cost £15. Call 01908 280800.

The Pity Party is a new piece of dance theatre capturing the feelings and thoughts of a generation craving validation from an online audience. It’s presented by Next Generation Youth Theatre and features a curtain-raiser by the Junior Contemporary class. It’s on at the Library Theatre from 7pm to 8.30pm.Tickets cost £10 or £8 for concessions. Call 01582 878100.

SUNDAY JULY 5

St Joseph’s Scout Group presents The Jungle Book at the scout hut in Blundell Road at 3pm with help from the Griffin Players. Refreshments will be available. Tickets cost £5 for adults and £3 for children. Call Bridget on 07981 866543.

Christiane Kubrick’s Childwickbury Arts Fair 2015.

Catch a live broadcast of the Royal Opera House’s production of William Tell at 2.45pm at the Grove Theatre, Dunstable. Tickets are £15 with discounts available for Friends of the Grove Theatre and concessions. For more information or to book tickets, call 01582 602080 or visit www.grovetheatre.co.uk.