“Amahl and the Night Visitors” by Gian Carlo Menotti is being presented by the Richmond Department of Parks and Recreation for the 47th consecutive year. The production is scheduled for 4 p.m. today at the Landmark Theater. There will be only one performance and it is free to the public. Directing the production is George Macklin, with Diana Greer as musical director. The title character is being played for a second year by Cooper Crowell, 11.

WELL—Barksdale Theatre will hold auditions for Lisa Kron’s play, directed by Keri Wormald, tomorrow and Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Empire Theatre, 114 W. Broad St. The production will be casting six actors: two white women and one black woman ages 20 to 50, one black man and one white man, 20 to 50, and one white woman, 50 to 70. Auditions are by appointment only. Prepare a short comic monologue, and be prepared to read from the script. Performers will be paid. Information: (804) 344-8052, ext. 4, or e-mail .

Love potions—fact or fiction? Check out one famous Italian composer’s views on the subject as the Virginia Opera Company brings Gaetano Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love” to life on the stage of the Landmark Theater Friday and Sunday.

Ongoing productions on area stages

Fort Lee is getting a new, $31 million Army museum. The Army’s Ordnance Museum will open in 2011, giving Fort Lee one of the service’s largest museum complexes. The Prince George County post already is home to the Quartermaster Museum and the Army Women’s Museum. About 49,000 people visited the Ordnance Museum, now at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., in the past year, a number that easily could double at Fort Lee with its easy access to Interstates 95 and 295, the museum’s director said.

The Cultural Action Plan Task Force is extending to Tuesday its deadline to participate in an online survey to help identify strategies to increase participation and financial support for arts and culture in central Virginia. The project is being funded through pledges from corporations and institutions of higher learning. Its purpose is to take advantage of the continuing momentum in the cultural sector and establish a unified voice for ongoing discussion.

Sculptor Tara Donovan yesterday became the third former Virginia Commonwealth University student to win the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in the past five years. Donovan, a 38-year-old New Yorker, was cited for her work in transforming “accumulations of ordinary materials into visually arresting, sculptural works reminiscent of geological and biological forms.“

Arts Around the Lake was back at Westhampton Lake yesterday, and for some Richmond-area artists and residents, it was a perfect place and a pleasant day. The University of Richmond event was outdoors again after two years in the university’s Robins Center during construction near the lake. Ninety-six local artists participated in the 29th annual juried event. The show included paintings, sculptures, jewelry, pottery and other media that were for admiration and for sale.