Northwestern Press

It’s been 30 years since director John Waters’ “Hairspray, the inspiration for the Broadway musical, was released.

But a year before in 1987, the making of the film was all the buzz in the Lehigh Valley.

Shock-auteur Waters typically shot his films exclusively in his hometown of Baltimore, but for “Hairspray” he brought his crew to South Whitehall Township to shoot a pivotal scene at Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom, which served as a stand-in for Tilted Acres, a fictional Baltimore amusement park.

It’s been 30 years since director John Waters’ “Hairspray, the inspiration for the Broadway musical, was released.

But a year before in 1987, the making of the film was all the buzz in the Lehigh Valley.

Shock-auteur Waters typically shot his films exclusively in his hometown of Baltimore, but for “Hairspray” he brought his crew to South Whitehall Township to shoot a pivotal scene at Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom, which served as a stand-in for Tilted Acres, a fictional Baltimore amusement park.

Large-scale model trains, an authentic harvest celebration and a 100-year-old printing press are some of the new attractions at the 69th annual Kutztown Folk Festival, which brings all things Pennsylvania-Dutch to the Kutztown Fairgrounds June 30 - July 8.

And there are new crafts and new foods to join with all the old favorites at the annual celebration of Pennsylvania-Dutch, ne, German culture.

A chance encounter with a high school classmate who ended up in prison for rape inspired Ara Barlieb to pen his newest original play “A Softening of Her Eyes.”

The play, Barlieb’s 10th original play performed by Crowded Kitchen Players, has its world premiere June 8 at the Charles A. Brown Ice House in Bethlehem.

“A Softening of Her Eyes” tells the story of a charismatic black man on trial for rape who escapes the courtroom and goes to a radio station where he asks to tell his side of the story on air.

Enjoy more than 30 free performances, noon-10 p.m. May 25-27, Mayfair Festival of the Arts at Cedar Crest College, Allentown.

Headlining the festival are Philadelphia Funk Authority and Go Go Gadjet.

There also will be performances by students from local schools and colleges including Allentown School District Inner District Wind Ensemble, Dieruff High School Jazz Band, The Valley Suzuki Strings and Tap Ties, which holds community dance lessons at the college.

There are also two special events in Alumnae Hall.

Take a peek into the imagination of children at Touchstone Theatre’s “Young Playwrights’ Festival” playing one night only at Zoellner Arts Center in Bethlehem.

The festival, unlike any other theater program in the Lehigh Valley, presents one-act plays written by students from fourth grade through high school on May 12 for the festival’s 13th year.

Emmaus native and award-winning filmmaker Stephanie Gardner wanted to spotlight local films directed by and starring women in her second film festival in her hometown.

“I was excited to find out how many women are making films in the Lehigh Valley,” Gardner says. “It was bigger than I expected.”

When Civic Theatre of Allentown first staged “Tuesdays With Morrie” in 2008 it was an intimate production presented on the then new black box stage of Theatre514.

This time around, the two-person play about a student and his teacher dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease, opens May 4 on the much larger stage of Cedar Crest’s Alumnae Hall.