Where can you see clowning, glassblowing, off-off-off-Broadway theater, cutting edge dance, three poets laureate and a Pakistani ear-lifter ranked in the Guinness Book of World Records? And what exactly is an ear lifter?

As you may have read in feature articles in Newsday and the New York Times, this afternoon marks the opening of Long Island’s first fringe arts festival. Under the banner “EXPERIENCE LONG ISLAND 2009,” 50 performances of innovative music, dance, theater, film, and poetry/spoken word will be staged in 16 different venues on the beautiful C. W. Post Campus of Long Island University. Visual art and family-friendly entertainment are also a part of the mix. Tilles Center is proud to be hosting this new showcase for regional artists--and some special off-Island guests--produced by The Artists Group.

An Art Walk starts this afternoon at 3, followed by an opening ceremony and reception in the Tilles Atrium at 5. Tonight and tomorrow featured Festival performers appear in the Concert Hall at 7. Simultaneous performances and exhibitions will be taking place all day on Saturday and Sunday. Some events are free; daytime events are priced from $5 - $10. Tickets for the evening shows start at $20. While you’re here, make sure to vote for your favorite act at the Mall of the Imagination.

For tickets and information click here, or visit www.debbydoll.com for even more details about performances and exhibits. Come to C.W. Post this weekend to share in the fun, post your comments on this blog, and join ongoing discussions with the artists and your neighbors on Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace.

Just as our 29th Season is set to begin, the Tilles Center family has been saddened by the passing of our naming benefactor Rose Tilles, who died last week at the age of 91. I write today in tribute to this remarkable woman, whose impact on the arts and culture on Long Island has been—and will continue to be—enormous.

What do JACKSON BROWNE, VLADIMIR JUROWSKI, and JUNGLE JACK HANNA have in common? Some might miss the connection between the beloved singer-songwriter, the Wunderkind conductor of the London Philharmonic, and the popular figure from children’s television. But if you’re navigating this website, you may already know the answer: all three are appearing at Long Island’s Tilles Center this season, for the first time. Furthermore, seats are only now available to the general public for these and many more great Tilles shows.

As of 1 PM on Friday, September 11, single tickets will be on sale for all events in our 29th Season, 2009 – 2010. This is a very special moment in the year for us, and it seems only fitting to use this occasion as the debut for our newest website addition, the DIRECTOR’S BLOG. We see the blog as a great new way to share an inside view of Tilles Center. It will be filled with background information, news, backstage happenings, and ideas for future programming and better customer service. We invite your response to what you read here, and to the new season as it unfolds in the coming weeks and months.

If you’re a Tilles Center subscriber, we thank you for your enthusiasm and support. Thanks to you, advance sales for the new season have already topped $1 million. If you are a single-ticket buyer who has been waiting for months to buy seats to one of our most popular shows, you may not need me to recommend our opening night with BERNADETTE PETERS or our Gala 2009 with LINDA EDER and BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL. Bernadette’s 2005 performance at Tilles was a sellout, and summer appearances by Linda (in Boston with the Pops) and Stokes (at the Hollywood Bowl) suggest that tickets for their fall appearances at Tilles will go quickly. If you love great classical music, you’ll want to take advantage of the recent addition of the LONDON PHILHARMONIC in March 2010; great seats at popular prices are now available for what is sure to be a highlight of the music season.

I hope that both renewing subscribers and new friends of Tilles Center will also choose to sample some of the exciting new programs we offer this fall. For two good examples, take a look at EXPERIENCE LONG ISLAND, the region’s first fringe-style arts festival, or at “REMEMBER ME,” the spectacular collaboration between PARSONS DANCE and the EAST VILLAGE OPERA COMPANY which was the hit of last years’s dance season in New York. In the coming weeks, the Blog will cover these and many other new events coming your way at Tilles Center. In the meantime, we hope to hear from you!