Arts and Humanities

The holiday season is a time when our thoughts turn to how thankful we are for family and friends, peace and goodwill, and the Official Red Ryder Carbine Action Two Hundred Shot Range Model Air Rifle (with a compass and this thing that tells time built right into the stock).

Actors Theatre of Louisville opened Sam Shepard’s “True West” last night. Directed by Obie Award-winning playwright and director Adam Rapp (“Finer Noble Gases,” “The Edge of Our Bodies,”), “True West” is a viciously funny and tragic portrayal of two brothers testing the boundaries of love, resentment and civilization.

This week on our audio diary series "The Big Break," Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks sees the cast list for "The Nutcracker" and learns her new choreography for the familiar show. Actors Theatre apprentice Samantha Beach sits in on rehearsal for "True West," where she discovers a hidden talent, and Kentucky Opera studio artist Brad Raymond takes "Tosca" on the road.

The National Book Award ceremony is tonight, and if you didn't score tickets to this year's revamped, glammed-up awards dinner in New York's Cipriani Wall Street, where you can rub elbows with Gen X darling actress/author Molly Ringwald and McSweeney's founder (and fiction nominee) Dave Eggers, the event will be live-streamed. The action starts at 9 p.m.