Pick: Thankful Dead

Get ahead of the gravy boat by dancing your ass off at the Thanksgiving eve jam band party Thankful Dead. Grateful Dead tribute band Bigfoot County puts a unique spin on the Dead’s songs while staying true to its spirited jams. Sisters & Brothers, led by vocalists Andy Tichenor and Davina Jackson, draws from the […]

Pick: Elf, The Musical

Journey to the Candy Cane Forest, past the sea of twirly-swirly gumdrops, and through the Lincoln Tunnel at Four County Players’ production of Elf: The Musical. The beloved story of Buddy the Elf comes to life with laugh-out-loud humor and plenty of festive music, including songs like “Sparklejollytwinklejingley” and “Nobody Cares About Santa,” because the […]

Pick: Yevgeny Kutik and Anna Polonsky

The Tuesday Evening Concert Series features an elegant program of Brahms, Milhaud, Strauss, and Ravel performed by Yevgeny Kutik and Anna Polonsky. Violinist Kutik is known for his technical precision and poetic interpretations of standard works, as well as newly composed pieces. His recent release, The Death of Juliet and Other Tales, highlights Russia’s rich […]

Conjuring the curriculum

With the series of paintings that make up Kristopher Castle’s engaging show “Curriculum Vitae” at Phaeton Gallery, the artist explores Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village and his innovative ideas for education. As the title suggests, the exploration is not a discourse on the UVA founder’s achievements, but rather the artist’s deeply personal relationship to Jefferson’s ideals […]

Saving Private Baumer

Netflix has elaborately revived Erich Maria Remarque’s classic World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Edward Berger. Remarque’s novel’s descriptions of trench warfare and mechanized bloodshed have lost none of their punch (likewise, Lewis Milestone’s 1930 film version), but in Berger’s take, many elements don’t fully coalesce into the potent […]

Pick: Violet

An inspirational testament to the human spirit with toe-tapping music, Live Arts’ Violet follows a young woman’s journey in search of healing and transformation. In 1964, Violet embarks on a 900-mile Greyhound bus trip from North Carolina to Tulsa, where she hopes a televangelist preacher can pray away a grisly scar she received in a […]

Pick: Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Celebrate the beauty and wonder of the natural world at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival. With Representation Matters as a theme, this year’s lineup features films that spotlight underrepresented voices in the environmental and wilderness communities. Learn about the importance of the ancestral lands surrounding the general Nch’i-Wàna area from the short film Land […]

Pick: The Art in Life: Fashion Makeup

Wing your liner, set your powder, blot your lipstick, and explore the alluring artistry of makeup at The Art in Life: Fashion Makeup. Expert makeup artists share their industry insights, including D’angelo Thompson, who won an Emmy for his work on “The Wendy Williams Show,” Kaydee Kyle-Taylor, a Melbourne-based pro working with BIPOC models, and […]

Living under a Rock

Jordan Rock’s big brother has been a household name for the comedian’s entire life. That’s certainly had a significant effect on his still-burgeoning career as an actor and stand-up artist—but the Rock clan’s youngest member tries hard not to let Chris’ outsized influence define him.  “It’s definitely a balance. I’m still trying to figure it […]

Pick: Two Trains Running

The Charlottesville Players Guild continues its journey through August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with Two Trains Running. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, set in 1960s Pittsburgh, follows restaurant owner Memphis Lee and his patrons and employees as they search for justice and love amidst a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Leslie M. Scott-Jones directs a cast that includes […]