A peculiar opportunity can sometimes find a perfect fit at smaller arts organizations in West Michigan. Just such an opportunity arose recently at Saugatuck Center for the Arts (SCA), according to Executive Director Kristin Jass Armstrong.

It’s been more than a month since Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines, claiming the lives of more than 5,600 people and displacing an estimated 4.4 million.

This week, Barbara the web minion is focusing in on all the great theater action going on around West Michigan. Whether you want to get into the Christmas spirit, or just enjoy some classical performances, she has you covered.

The Grand Rapids Public Museum will be opening a new exhibit on March 1, 2014, called Dream it, Build it: A LEGO Certified Professional Exhibit.

Suppose your ex suddenly shows up at your door. Suppose there's a good chance this ex could be your child's father. Now suppose it's not just one possible baby daddy at your door, but three. Oh—one more minor detail here—suppose these men arrive just in time for your daughter's wedding.

Push back all of the stereotypical operas and focus in on what an opera is not. Instead of singers bellowing out pitches from A flats to G sharps, Cangue League throws those stereotypes out with its performance, The Death of Schopenhauer.

When Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey began their startling BDSM relationship, women everywhere couldn't stop cracking open the seductive silver cover of E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey.

ArtPrize V was as lame and limp as the plump West Michigan gypsies that jammed our streets like the asses that pack their husky Wranglers. The most impressive part of it all was my amazement when one of the 49,000 "art experts" managed to walk more than a block without their heart exploding or eating their fists.

The picturesque lakeside town of Grand Haven doesn't have an official art museum, but that may be what adds to the unique mix as an emerging area for fine art appreciation.

Before glittering diamond skin, vegetarianism and werewolf hatred came around to screw up classic lore, vampires owned the night, seducing countless victims. In 1897, Bram Stoker sculpted the first iconic vampire: Dracula.

In Stoker's novel, Dracula possessed all the legend qualities – lust for human blood, the ability to fly as a bat, repelled by garlic, allergic to the sun – to display this horror character.

• Bram Stoker
• Dracula
• Patricia Baker
• Grand Rapids Ballet Company
• Roger Van Fleteren
• Wes Chapman
• Stephen Sanford
• Laura McQueen Schultz