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The Children’s Performing Arts Series at Stephen F. Austin State University will open its 2023-24 season with a touring musical of the childhood favorite “Cinderella” on Thursday, Oct. 19, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Bullied by her two mean stepsisters, Cinderella’s future looks bleak until her Fairy Godmother casts a spell and sends her to the ball. How will the Prince ever find her when she flees at midnight, leaving behind a single glass slipper?

“True to the story, bringing to life this tale for all time, ‘Cinderella’ is full of original modern songs, bursting with more hilarity than you can imagine and, of course, a happy ending,” said Diane Peterson, Fine Arts Box Office manager and director of the children’s series.

The Children’s Performing Arts Series, presented by the Micky Elliott College of Fine Arts, features shows designed to entertain, educate and engage young audiences of all ages, according to Peterson.

Presented by The Panto Company USA, “Cinderella” targets children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Performances are at 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Turner Auditorium is located in Griffith Fine Arts Building, 2222 Alumni Drive.

Tickets are $9 for individuals and $7 per person for groups of 20 or more. Call 936.468.6407 or 888.240.ARTS or visit sfasu.edu/boxoffice for tickets or more information.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and SFA’s filmmaking program will premiere of its summer film project, “CUT!,” at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, in Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus.

Written and directed by filmmaking Professor Brad Maule, with special guest director Derek Wayne Johnson, “CUT!” is about a struggling film school in East Texas that hires a Hollywood filmmaker, Skippy Digler III, to direct a student feature film, “Massacre in the Pines.” The students get more than they bargained for when they realize Skippy isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.

Longtime filmmaking Professor William Arscott served as producer with Johnson as co-producer and film editor. The comedy-drama stars Maule as Digler, along with Triston Dodson, Carter Colvin, Riley Green and Bill Small. Music is by Greg Sims, and director of photography is Tim Johnson.

Derek Wayne Johnson, an SFA filmmaking alumnus, is known for his documentaries “John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs,” highlighting the life and career of the Oscar-winning director of “Rocky” and “The Karate Kid,” “40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic,” narrated by Sylvester Stallone, and “STALLONE: Frank, That Is,” detailing the highs and lows of Sylvester’s not-so-famous brother, Frank Stallone. Johnson recently joined the filmmaking faculty at SFA.

“Every summer, SFA film students make a full-length feature film,” explains Johnson. “This has been a longstanding tradition and separates the SFA filmmaking department from many other film schools across the globe. Although the students earn college credit for their efforts, the procedures, protocols and outcomes are nothing less than professional. I’m honored to join SFA as the new assistant professor of filmmaking and hope to bring my professional Hollywood experience to the program to educate and inspire the next generation of filmmakers.”

Admission to the premiere of “CUT!” is free. A question-and-answer session with the cast and crew will follow. For more information, contact the School of Art at (936) 468-4804.

The first event in the return of the University Series at Stephen F. Austin State University will be a performance by Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ruthie Foster at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, in the newly renovated Turner Auditorium in Griffith Fine Arts Building.

With the completion of Griffith’s renovations and expansion, Micky Elliott College of Fine Arts revives its touring performance series, which was discontinued during the Covid pandemic, with four exciting shows for the 2023-24 Centennial Season. Performances include Foster on Oct. 12: Grammy and Dove award winners and Grand Ole Opry members Dailey and Vincent Dec. 14; comedian Joe Zimmerman Feb. 22; and acclaimed trombonist, composer and producer Delfeayo Marsalis performing with SFA’s Swingin’ Axes jazz band April 19.

Raised in a family of gospel singers, Foster performs blues, jazz, folk, soul and gospel, often being compared to Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin. Touring extensively around the world, her ninth studio album represents a new high-water mark for the Austin-based veteran blues artist. “Healing Time” finds Foster pushing her boundaries as a singer and songwriter more than ever before.

Single event tickets are adult, $35; senior (62 or better), $30; SFA faculty/staff, $18; non-SFA student/youth, $15; SFA student, $3. To purchase tickets, call the Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS, or visit sfasu.edu/boxoffice. The Fine Arts Box Office is located in the second floor lobby, Griffith Fine Arts Building, SFA campus.

Award-winning pianist Dr. Martin Kesuma will perform works by Nikolai Kapustin, Alberto Ginastera, Manuel de Falla and other varied composers when he presents a solo recital at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, in Cole Concert Hall on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus.

A native of Jakarta, Indonesia, Kesuma has performed as a solo pianist and chamber musician throughout Indonesia, Canada and the United States. Prior to his recent move back to Texas, he worked as a collaborative pianist and a chamber music instructor at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. He is currently pursuing a performance certificate degree at Texas State University.

For this recital, Kesuma said he chose pieces “from many different styles that are not performed too often, despite how effective or beautiful they are.”

“Several years ago, when I received an invitation to record a solo album, I started thinking about how I wanted to play pieces by more diverse composers,” he said. “‘Detours’ was released by Centaur Records in 2021, and it features pieces by composers from Spain, Russia, Argentina, Japan, Indonesia, Australia and the U.S. In some ways, this recital is a continuation of my previous album, showcasing pieces by composers of different backgrounds.”

Among the works are Kapustin’s Variations, Op. 41, which Kesuma describes as “a fun piece that sounds like a jazz improvisation that you would hear in a café – highly virtuosic. A lot of scholars believe that the theme comes from Stravinsky’s opening of ‘The Rite of Spring.'”

Ginastera’s Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22 is a four-movement piece, written by a prominent Argentinian composer. It incorporates many different Argentinian dances in the piece. “It is a highly challenging piece with lots of fast octaves,” Kesuma said,

Although de Falla’s “Fantasía Bética” is considered one of the Spanish masterpieces, it is not played very often. “A lot of the techniques used in this piece are quite unusual in piano playing,” Kesuma said, “and this is due to the use of the piano to imitate Southern Spanish folk styles, such as the use of castanets, guitars, heel stampings and cante jondo.”

Kesuma has won prizes in competitions including the Dickinson Piano Competition, PianoHouse International Piano Competition, New York International Music Concours, Canadian International Music Competition, the ASEAN International Concerto Competition and the Texas State International Piano Festival Concerto Competition.

Admission is free. Cole Concert Hall is located in Wright Music Building. For more information, contact the School of Music at (936) 468-4602 or visit sfasu.edu/music.

The Stephen F. Austin State University School of Art and the Friends of the Visual Arts will present a free, one-night screening of “The Good Exorcist,” a 2018 film cowritten by Josh Stifter and Daniel Degnan and directed by Stifter. The screening is at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6, in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House.

In this campy comedy, an eccentric wandering priest adventures to a ranch in Texas to dispel the darkness that has come over a peculiar family. As he digs deeper, the priest soon finds that he may be in over his head, according to imdb.com.

Director Stifter made the film as part of the “Rebel Without a Crew” television series, which followed a group of aspiring filmmakers as they each attempted to shoot a feature length film in just two weeks and with a budget of only $7,000.

Stifter will be available for a virtual question-and-answer session following the film screening.

The School of Art’s Friday Night Film Series is sponsored in part by filmmaking Professor William Arscott. The Cole Art Center, SFA’s historic downtown gallery, is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.

Stephen F. Austin State University School of Theatre and Dance will present August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “The Piano Lesson” Thursday through Sunday, Sept. 28 through Oct. 1, in the new Flex Theatre in Griffith Fine Arts Building on the SFA campus. Cast members include, front, from left, Olivia Wintz, Killeen senior, as Maretha; Joshua Jameson, Arlington freshman, as Doaker Charles; Xavier Sanchez, Houston sophomore, as Lymon; standing, from left, Grant Calloway, Gary junior, as Avery Brown; CJ Tate, Dallas junior, as Wining Boy; Kiya Green, Waxahachie senior, as Berniece; Erik Colbert Jr., Houston freshman, as Boy Willie; and Ashland Anderson, Houston freshman, as Grace. Directed by Cleo House Jr., “The Piano Lesson” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. General admission ticket prices are: adult, $15; senior (62+), $10; youth (high school and younger), $8; SFA faculty/staff, $8; non-SFA student, $8; and SFA student, $5. For ticketing information or to purchase tickets, call the Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS, or visit sfasu.edu/boxoffice. For information about the play, call (936) 468-4003 or visit sfasu.edu/theatre-dance.