Organic storytelling: Building theater from the body up

When you think of storytelling, you might imagine your animated girlfriend gesticulating over Sunday brunch or a kindly grandfather telling the kids to gather ’round. But for Siân Richards and Kara McLane Burke, stories begin in the body. “You just kind of start somewhere and give yourself rules, a series of assignments, even if you […]

Music man: Jason Burke moves his local music showcase to the Southern

What line of work is Jason Burke in? “I’m an insurance man,” he said—without a trace of irony, without a hint of recognition that what he’d just said sounded like a line from a grainy black and white movin’ picture. Burke, in a vast landscape of Charlottesville insurance men, has pulled himself up (or burrowed […]

ARTS Pick: Steven Isserlis

December begins on a classy note with a program of Schumann, Bach and more that features internationally renowned cellist Steven Isserlis. The concerto soloist and chamber musician is one of only two living cellists in the Gramophone Hall of Fame, and in this sonata-centered performance he is joined by Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival co-founder, and accomplished […]

ARTS Pick: Karate Tango

PVCC’s theater and dance departments team up for the first time in a revamped production of local award-winning playwright Peter Ryan’s off-Broadway musical Karate Tango. The bold and witty plot weaves romance and show biz into a bittersweet exploration of marriage’s ups and downs. Choreographers Katharine Hall and Amanda Liscouski lead a cast of nearly […]

ARTS Pick: Holiday Burlesque

While the holiday season doesn’t necessarily conjure visions of scantily clad women doing the bump ‘n’ grind, Deanna Danger and her crew of vaudevillian and burlesque performers see no harm in weaving some risqué into your merry making. Performer, producer and instructor, Danger leads the second annual Holiday Burlesque—her personally crafted erotic comedy and dance […]

Film review: Horrible Bosses 2 falls back on the original

During one of the many minutes-long stretches of Horrible Bosses 2 that pass by without a single chuckle, your mind may start to wander as you realize how strangely and unintentionally meta it is that a movie about self-employment would become a victim of its own success. It’s as though the makers of the first […]

December First Fridays Guide

  First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many Downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions. Listings are compiled in collaboration with Piedmont Council for the Arts. To list an exhibit, please send information two weeks before opening to arts@c-ville.com. First Fridays: December 5, 2014. C’ville Arts 118 E. Main […]

ARTS Pick: Les Miserables

Matt Joslyn directs an extensive local cast in the much-loved musical Les Misérables. The epic story captures the plight of Parisian Jean Valjean and his niece Cosette in a quest for redemption that eventually leads to the June Rebellion in 1832. The original theatrical production of Victor Hugo’s famous novel spent 16 years on Broadway, […]

At the door: Daphne Maxwell Reid captures one side of wonder

When you view a photography exhibit that focuses exclusively on doors, you can’t help but feel a tinge of desperation to know what on earth is behind them. Artist Daphne Maxwell Reid makes no such offers in her current show at The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. “Everybody starts with the same curiosity. Every […]