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Sarasota News Leader July 19, 2013 Page 91 MUSIC & MOVIES COMING TO THE MANATEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER A collaboration between Realize Bradenton and the Manatee Players will bring live cabaret and classic movies — Music & Movies — to Bradenton's new Manatee Performing Arts Center July 21, Aug. 18 and Sept. 15, the center has announced. The cabaret performance begins at 6 p.m. followed by the movie at 7 p.m. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. For more information, call the Manatee Players' box office at 941-748-5875. According to Janene Witham, executive director of the Manatee Players, the series is made possible, in part, by a generous grant from the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation. "The Selby Foundation grant empowered us to purchase a state-of-the-art projector system for the facility," says Witham in a news release. "With its live music and cinematic elements, this series is a great way to beat the summer heat and take our brand new facility for a test drive. We know audiences are going to love it!" The series kicks off at 6 p.m. on July 21 with a performance by The Wirebeaters, "Manatee County's high-energy bluegrass quintet," the release notes. That performance will be followed at 7 p.m. with a screening of Fried Green Tomatoes, the 1991 film starring Kathy Bates as an unhappy housewife and Jessica Tandy as a lonely nursing home resident who enthralls Bates with her tales of her life. The series will continue at 6 p.m. on Aug. 18 with "vocalist Eve Caballero and the Manatee Players performing sultry jazz favorites and setting the mood for the 7 p.m. screening of Chicago, [director] Rob Marshall's Academy Award-winning adaptation of the satirical musical exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, murder and corruption in the Jazz Age," the release adds. The series will conclude at 6 p.m. on Sept. 15 with a performance by actor Berry Ayers, aka Beneva Fruitville, "the plucky Southern belle with a risqué mouth who hosts the popular Drag Queen Bingo series at area venues," the release points out. Following the performance at 7 p.m. will be a showing of The Birdcage, Mike Nichols' entertaining Beneva Fruitville/Contributed photo