Full circle: Samantha Macher returns to UVA drama as a playwright

In high school, playwright Samantha Macher staged a revolt. “We got a new drama teacher my senior year who canceled the spring musical because he just couldn’t figure out how to use any of us,” says the self-proclaimed theater nerd. “I wound up writing, directing and producing the spring musical. I was like, ‘Screw this.’” […]

ARTS Pick: Wrinkle Neck Mules

There’s no need to smuggle a taping rig into this Wrinkle Neck Mules show because WarHen Records is capturing the tracks live for an upcoming vinyl release. The recording by Warren Parker’s indie label offers die-hard fans a collector’s item and a chance to enjoy the intimate gig without fumbling with gear and bumping into […]

ARTS Pick: Madama Butterfly

No opera season is complete without a production of Madama Butterfly. Composed by Giacomo Puccini in three acts, the opera tells the tale of a young geisha who devotes herself to a U.S. naval officer, resulting in heartbreak and tragedy. The Met Live in HD broadcast is every bit as dramatic, colorful and exotic as […]

April First Fridays Guide

Ever since local artist Allan Young can remember, he has been taking things apart to figure out what makes them tick. One day he was tinkering, and created a clock from an old computer hard drive, thus his eclectic approach to constructing time pieces was born. Young has made clocks from a wide range of […]

Film review: Batman v Superman is all about the future

We’ve reached, it seems, a place in our relationship with comic book movies that the particulars of an individual plot matter less than the promise of future installments. The parts of Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice that work are those that are almost completely devoid of meaning to the movie around them, […]

ARTS Pick: Nora Jane Struthers

Roots rock musician Nora Jane Struthers’ Wake is perhaps her most mature album to date. Described as lyrics “set to a soundtrack that resonates with the warm uplift of the first day of spring,” the record is a coming-of-age project from the former Virginia girl, who sings about falling in love, lessons learned and entering […]

Seeing things: Illustrator Christophe Vorlet puts the elephant in perspective

Christophe Vorlet painted his mailbox pink, but purely for functional reasons: It makes it easier to give directions to people. That the mailbox also serves as roadside art didn’t factor into the decision, he says. Much of Vorlet’s approach to visual art is filtered through a similar matter-of-factness. As an illustrator and graphic designer who […]

ARTS Pick: Gogol Bordello

Gypsy-punk-dub band Gogol Bordello’s sixth album, Pura Vida Conspiracy, continues the group’s intentional trailblazing. “The message of this record is the quest for self-knowledge beyond borders and nationalities,” says frontman Eugene Hütz. “Every culture is a useful mask, but it is just a mask. To get to know your actual human self, you have to […]

Good night, John-Boy: ‘Waltons’ creator Earl Hamner dies at 92

Schuyler native Earl Hamner Jr., who put Nelson County on the national map with his 1970s Emmy-winning series, “The Waltons,” died from cancer March 24 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles listening to “Rocky Mountain High,” according to his son’s post on Facebook. He was 92. Best known for “The Waltons,” he also wrote episodes […]