Rick Barker, much-loved Idyllwild author and community volunteer, served on the Idyllwild Community Center board and was an advocate for the Idyllwild Dog Park, now under ICC management. Preston Sparks, local actor, craftsman and community volunteer, recently installed a memorial bench he created to honor Barker, who died this year on Jan. 20. Sparks said…

Idyllwild Arts’ Theatre Department next presents “Hotel Cassiopeia,” playwright Charles L. Mee’s dreamlike evocation of the life and carefully calibrated creations of American “sculptor” and collector of found objects Joseph Cornell. Famously reclusive, Cornell is best known for his juxtapositioning of delicate found objects in glass-fronted shadow boxes. His “memory boxes” arranged iconic objects in…

“Little Shop of Horrors” is the final 2013-14 production of the Idyllwild Arts Academy’s Theater Department. The musical was first performed in 1982 and has become a favorite throughout this country and internationally. For those unfamiliar with the movie, the plot is simply about a florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on…