dsmWeekly: November 5, 2019

The Community Playhouse will glow with a century of history this weekend. Photo: Julie K. Munden.

PLAYHOUSE MARKS ITS CENTENNIAL WITH PARTIES

The Des Moines Community Playhouse is turning 100 and throwing a Birthday Bash Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8 and 9, at the theater. Some events are free; others have a nominal charge.

Friday from 5:30 to 11 p.m is the Ultimate Cast Party in the Kate Goldman Theatre. The party is a free, public open house for anyone who has ever been a part of the Playhouse in any capacity, including audience members. The event includes cast party food (Twizzlers, cookies and more), cash bar, open mic and Broadway karaoke. Guests will have a chance to sign a giant retirement card for artistic director emeritus John Viars, who is completing his 37-year tenure at the Playhouse.

The Celebration of the Century will be Saturday. The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. with a dinner. Food stations by Tasteful Dinners will allow guests to mingle, sit down and chat, and move on to other groups of friends. At 7:00 p.m., performers will take the audience through the Playhouse's 100 years in music. The Celebration of the Century is $60 for a dinner-and-show combination, and $20 for show only.

For more information about the Playhouse and the 100th Birthday Bash, click here or contact the Playhouse ticket office at 515-277-6261.

Sue Honkamp teaches kids about where their food comes from as well as how to prepare it.

KIDS IN THE KITCHEN FOR REAL

By Wini Moranville

"The more my children were engaged in the creation of their food, the more they were excited to try new things," says Sue Honkamp, owner of Real Food 4 Kids. If you have a child, you’ve likely heard this parenting wisdom before. But figuring out ways to get kids meaningfully involved in the kitchen can be a challenge when, really, everyone just wants to eat. Now.

That’s where Honkamp comes in. Since launching her business in 2016, she has taught over 225 classes to children, including hands-on cooking classes, after-school "cooking club" classes, and food education classes.

As the name of her business implies, she is passionate about real (versus processed) foods. But it hasn’t always been that way. With an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and an MBA from the University of Iowa, Honkamp worked as a brand manager for five years at Oscar Mayer.

"I learned a great deal about processed food and food marketing, and I resigned because I didn't feel comfortable marketing foods to others that I had ceased purchasing for myself and my family," she says. Soon, her work focused on promoting real foods; she worked for the "Buy Fresh/Buy Local" campaign and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and also took on some consulting gigs in the field.

Along the way, she taught her own four children to get involved in the kitchen as a way to learn a lifelong skill, while "sneaking in some art, science, and math, too," she says. Now, she does the same for other kids. Her lessons go beyond cooking skills to help kids understand where their food comes from and how it’s produced.

"Kids will make choices about food every day of their life," she says. "While they are young, their eating habits are still being formed and they have an eagerness to learn. I want to give them the tools to develop a lifelong skill that impacts their health in a positive way."

Learn more about the classes that Honkamp offers on the Real Food 4 Kids website.

Eight feet tall and eight feet wide, that's a whole lotta love, but it's going into storage for a bit until a new pedestal can be created. Photo: Ben Easter Photography.

LOVE COMES AND GOES

Installed at the downtown sculpture park this past summer, Robert Indiana's popular "LOVE" sculpture will be absent for a while, awaiting a new pedestal. Officials of the Des Moines Art Center, which manages the park, plan to remove the sculpture today—but in art as in life, love will find a way back. We were delighted to feature the piece on our September cover, marking the park's 10th anniversary. Click here to read that story.

See and hear from our 2019 Sages in this video, created by Duane and Dylan Huey of Good Plan Productions.

JOIN US TO HONOR THIS YEAR'S SAGES OVER 70

Some tickets are still available for the Nov. 11 reception at which we will celebrate the civic contributions of this year’s Sages Over 70.

Currently featured in this story in the new issue of dsm magazine, they’ll be the toast of the town, and we'll pay tribute to them at the annual reception, this year at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel, where each will share insights into their approach to life.

This year’s Sages are Penny Furgerson, Ruth Ann Gaines, Ruth and Tom Harkin, John Pappajohn, Ila Plasencia, and Mary Seidler.

The reception begins at 4 p.m., with the program starting at 5 p.m. It’s a highlight on our calendar, leaving attendees inspired and proud of the community we share. Tickets are $50 each. Click here for tickets and more information.

Food at Harbinger looks amazing, including these happy-hour-priced tapioca and pecorino fritters.

TEN OF THE BEST MEAL BARGAINS IN TOWN

Drive on past the drive-through. We've found some amazing specials that prove that you can enjoy high-quality eats without taking a big bite out of your budget. And they're available at popular restaurants, including Harbinger, Gusto Pizza, Alba, Cheese Bar, Wasabi, Bubba, Aposto, Eatery A, Django and 801 Chophouse. They're the best meal deals we coulld find, and they're all featured in this article from our new issue.

This lifesize representation of a stag that faces in two directions is being installed at 42nd Street and Ingersoll Avenue. The artist is Larassa Kabel. Photo: Ben Easter Photography.

LOCAL ARTIST CREATES SCULPTURE ON INGERSOLL

Many people are touched by artwork they see. A new sculpture coming to Ingersoll Avenue is intended to be touched back. An unveiling will take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6., with a public dedication planned for next spring.

The Public Art Committee of The Avenues of Ingersoll & Grand commissioned local artist Larassa Kabel to create her first sculpture called "The Black Crown of Recurring Loss." The life-size bronze form embodies the relationship between love and its conjoined twin and shadow, fear of loss.

The work is set on a limestone base along a new pathway on the wooded grounds of Plymouth Place, the 12-story circular residential building designed by local architect Raymond Hueholt . The buildihg was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

"The finish of many public artworks is accidentally damaged when people touch them and try to photograph themselves with them. I view these as an individual’s attempt to mark their place, to say ‘I matter. I was here. I existed,’ " says Kabel. "Black Crown was designed with those inevitable interactions in mind. The anticipated wear of the patina from rubbing the antlers or noses is part of the piece, a way of capturing the presence of our community over time. I enjoyed making this piece more than I can say, and I hope it becomes a beloved piece of the neighborhood."

Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker perforns with the Des Moines Symphony this weekend.

SYMPHONY PLANS PROGRAM OF GRIEG, DVORAK

Canadian piano virtuoso Jon Kimura Parker joins the Des Moines Symphony— 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9, and 2:30 p.m, Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Des Moines Civic Center—for this season’s third Masterworks concert program, highlighting the work of Edvard Grieg and Antonin Dvorak, giants of classical music in the late 19th century.

First on the program is the high-flying orchestral piece "Javelin," created for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics by American composer Michael Torke. Grieg’s "Piano Concerto" follows, featuring Parker on the keyboard. The program closes with Dvorak’s "Symphony No. 8," written following the composer’s time in eastern Iowa in 1893. We’re always delighted when his music brings him back to us.

Tickets are $15-$70 in advance, available through dmpa.org or at the Civic Center box office.