Special Daylong Immersion in Bach Solo Masterworks with Guy Fishman and Multiple Cellos
CHARLOTTE, NC – The complete plays of John Millington Synge at the Edinburgh International Festival were a rare and epical event. So were Béla Bartok's complete string quartets at Aspen, both parts of Angels in America on Broadway, a complete Richard Wagner Ring Cycle...
Gut Instinct Chamber Series Premieres With Great Success
CHAPEL HILL, NC – The start of the 2024-25 concert season saw the premiere concert of a new chamber music series in North Carolina: Gut Instinct. Held at UNC in Chapel Hill, the three concerts in this season will offer music lovers several out-of-the ordinary...
Revisiting Old Hollywood with By the Way, Meet Vera Stark at Theatre in the Park
RALEIGH, NC - The quotation is famous; the source, less so. "We all know that Art is not truth," Picasso wrote in a letter to Mexican artist, writer and exhibitor Marius de Zayas. "Art is a lie that makes us realize truth." Yes. And then there are all the other lies,...
THROUGH 9/8: Laughing Good Time with Big Dawg Productions’ The 39 Steps
WILMINGTON, NC - How do you sell an in-joke to an audience? On paper, this should be the issue dogging any production of The 39 Steps. The first thing that struck me about this play is how specific a comedy it is, a spoof of the sort of British espionage mysteries...
New Company’s First Production Gives Modern Scourge a Very Human Face: Vixen Theatre’s A KID LIKE JAKE
RALEIGH, NC - A good friend of mine entered second grade this week. While babysitting for the family earlier in the pandemic, I'd noticed their already iconoclastic tastes in fashion: tie-died t-shirt and dungarees bisected by a tutu, or a favored sheet wrapped into...
THROUGH 9/1: Sihr Theatre’s Shining City Brings Hope of a Shining Future for a Young Theatre Company
WILMINGTON, NC - It is remarkable to me, that as long as I have been reviewing theater in Wilmington, I have never seen a production staged in the North Front Theatre. It's an odd venue in a lot of ways, blending in with the rest of the buildings in the downtown area...
Through 9/29: Paperhand Puppet Intervention’s EARTH & SKY
CHAPEL HILL, NC - This summer's political party conventions? Strictly small potatoes. What's really needed now, given the state of the planet, is a congress of all life forms. That intriguing suggestion takes form in EARTH & SKY, A GREAT GATHERING FOR ALL BEINGS,...
Movie Lore Mystery Probes Women’s Exploitation in Arts and Academe: Brave New Classics’ HITCHCOCK BLONDE
DURHAM, NC - It's tempting to call British playwright Terry Johnson's time-shifting drama, Hitchcock Blonde, an intellectual thriller for film fans and be done with it. It's built, after all, on the movie lore surrounding the legendary – and problematic – director...
THROUGH 9/15 – Raleigh Little Theatre Comes Out Of Its Shell With Something Rotten!
RALEIGH, NC - Why did the egg regret being in an omelet? It wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Raleigh Little Theatre's Something Rotten! was far from rotten - it was fresh, organic, and new. Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick's 2015 comedy brings the perception of art,...
Gut Instinct Chamber Series Set to Premiere at UNC on August 30th
CHAPEL HILL, NC – Our state has a new chamber ensemble and a new chamber music series. Both are called Gut Instinct and originate from the music department at UNC, the flagship University of North Carolina campus at Chapel Hill. There will be three concerts on this...
