We cannot live without books: Festival hosts 200+ events over five days
Of the festival’s myriad non-fiction topics, one of the hottest will be Thomas Jefferson. This is Charlottesville, after all. Three separate programs focus on T.J., including Jefferson’s Legacies with Henry Wiencek and John Ragosta (Friday at 4pm at CitySpace). Wiencek’s Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves received much attention for its highly-charged topic. “There was so much about Jefferson I didn’t understand,” Wiencek said. “There’s a saying among authors, ‘I write to find out.’”
Good buzz: In The Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)
Onstage, a fine-featured woman removes her skirt, collapses her bustle, and adjusts the corset nipping her waist. Her hands are pale and flighty as she sits on the doctor’s bench and pulls a medical drape up to her chin. Diagnosed with hysteria, a Victorian umbrella term for ailments including headaches, light sensitivity, and predisposition to [...]
Finding Common Ground for everyone at the new Jefferson School City Center
On January 1, one week before the Jefferson School City Center opened, I stood in front of the building’s main doors and rattled them in vain. I’d hoped to slip inside and sneak a preview of Common Ground Healing Arts, the affordable-rate holistic health studio nestled on the community center’s second floor. Instead I stared [...]
On the clock: Whole Theater leads a 24-hour blitz to benefit Live Arts
“24/7 (2013) flips the paradigm,” Ray Nedzel said, noting that actors and writers typically audition and submit works to critical producers. “24/7 guarantees that new work will be produced, that actors will land their roles. The artists, in turn, commit completely, “and they do it with conviction, guts and expertise each time.”
ARTS Pick: The Dreamtime Project
Storytellers, musicians and world culture enthusiasts weave myths and epic folklore using African drums, Australian didgeridoos, and Native American wind flutes to create The Dreamtime Project.
ARTS Pick: Wilford “88 Keys” Wilson
Local treasure Wilford “88 Keys” Wilson lights up the ivories between champagne toasts on NYE at Fellini’s.
A quick guide to New Year’s Eve in Charlottesville
Whether you decide to spend your New Year’s Eve with talented student filmmakers, passionate performing artists, or rocking out to big band sounds, you’re guaranteed to ring in 2013 with a newfound love of Charlottesville’s arts scene. First Night is an annual “celebration of the arts” that began in Charlottesville in 1983 with dozens of family-friendly [...]