Ben Folds

A modern piano man who rocks out and pens intelligent songs, Ben Folds rose to fame in front of his ’90s alt-rock group Ben Folds Five before going solo in 2000. The Ben Folds Paper Airplane Request Tour takes flight with opener Lindsey Kraft and invites guests to launch their song requests to the stage […]

amminal

amminal returns to The Stage at WTJU as part of the Third Rail music series. The psych-folk space-rock band embraces the mundane in songs that explore the transcendent effect of nature. Formed in 2021, the group has been guided by the inspiring tug of the natural world in life and art. amminal EP, released in […]

“Little Shop of Horrors”

Virginia Theatre Festival’s season takes a mad twist with the wonderfully weird stage adaptation of the black comedy film Little Shop of Horrors. In the sci-fi story, a flower shopkeeper named Seymour discovers a plant thirsty for blood while he schemes to win over his love interest, Audrey. The new succulent breed presents itself as […]

Fridays after Five: Shagwüf with Holy Roller

Ting Pavilion, July 19 On its face, it seems awfully early in the evening to lose it for the kind of rock ’n’ roll you’ll get out of Shagwüf. Then again, with that Fridays after Five offer (um, free), you can’t exactly complain about it either. A mainstay of local music stages, the self-proclaimed “sweet […]

Andrew Bird and Nickel Creek with Mike Viola 

Ting Pavilion, July 17 Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird has been in a few noteworthy bands and has released or joined in on more records than we have space to discuss here. The singer and songwriter first came to fame collaborating with swing band Squirrel Nut Zippers in the late 1990s and went on to put […]

Life, liberty, and the Women at Monticello Tour

Straight out of the gate, I must acknowledge this wasn’t a fair test. Almost a decade ago (where has the time gone?), I worked at Monticello for roughly seven years. My last few roles were Martha-of-many-trades jobs, doing everything from loading buses and giving tours to helping with events and addressing guest feedback. Not surprisingly, […]

Discovering place, family, and memory in Annie Woodford’s poetry

“Poetry allows you to preserve a certain moment, a certain place. It’s giving voice to something that otherwise I would just carry around mutely,” says poet Annie Woodford, author of Where You Come From Is Gone and winner of the Weatherford Award for Best Books about Appalachia. “Then, when you think about economic systems or […]

Chandler Jennings in the HotSeat

On view through July 25, New City Arts presents “Around the Table: Political play, agency, gamification, and other things we can learn from board games,” an exhibition curated by Chandler Jennings. A Spring 2024 New City Arts Research Residency recipient, Jennings used his residency to continue developing a prototype of his own tabletop game, Conxensus: […]

The Elixir of Love

Inspired by Le Philtre, premiered at the Paris Opera in 1831, The Elixir of Love uncorks a romantic drama in the Italian countryside. The contemporary libretto is written by Felice Romani and stars a cheap bottle of red wine as the agent to activate affection. Nemorino, roused by the wine and blinded by love, boldly […]

Shakespeare at the Ruins

Experience the magic of Shakespeare at the Ruins, set among the historic remains of Governor James Barbour’s mansion, designed by Thomas Jefferson and destroyed by fire in 1884. Following a short hiatus due to wear and tear, the summer tradition (launched in 1990) returns with a performance of The Comedy of Errors, a collaboration between […]