The Color Purple is a heart-wrenching/warming story, penned by Alice Walker and famously acted by Whoopie Goldberg, comes to the stage in this Oprah Winfrey-produced Broadway hit (Oprah also joined Whoopie for the onscreen production). The story, subtitled "The Musical About Love," follows Celie, who finds inner strength and beauty despite a lifelong affair with adversity. The Grammy-nominated score offers a colorful combo of gospel, jazz, pop and the blues, and the production was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, among them Best Musical. Nov. 24-29, 8 p.m. Tues., 2 and 8 p.m. Weds.-Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater, $40-$70, rutheckerhall.com. – Franki Weddington
For A Semblance, USF Fine Arts major Kaileen Schleith's exhibits paintings and multimedia works that represent globalization via a continued use of stars and stripes and symbols that relate to "consumption, production and waste." On display through Nov. 27. Visit ctr.usf.edu/gallery for more info. Centre Gallery, Marshall Center, USF Tampa, Tampa.
Tes One (nee Leon Bedore) returns to Tampa for Repeat Offender, his first solo show in five years — which is now entering its final week on display. The artist, whose prints are a mainstay in galleries around the Bay area (and designer of CL's own Obama-inspired cover), creates a collection that contrasts "nature with technology, grime with grace" — the results of which are immediately striking and visually interesting, but require closer inspection to fully digest. More often than not, what's underneath the surface is even more important than the clearly visible — like a snarling grizzly bear screenprinted over a sign advertising "space available." Ironic, of course, because we're cutting down the trees in the grizzly's space to make our signs. (Pictured: “External Drive,” acrylic on wood) On display through Nov. 30, Redletter1 Gallery, 1510 E. Eighth Ave., Ybor City, free, 813-241-2435, tesone.net. – Franki Weddington
