Pick: The O’Malley Gambit

Women’s world: Girls rule in Charlottesville Playwrights Collective’s presentation of The O’Malley Gambit. Local playwright Kate Monaghan weaves drama, power, and feminism into the story of a meeting between Ireland’s clan leader Grace O’Malley and England’s Queen Elizabeth in the late 1500s. What begins as a negotiation for the release of O’Malley’s son, imprisoned and […]

ARTS Pick: Armida

Tale spin: Miriam Gordon-Stewart and Victory Hall Opera take on Hadyn’s 1784 opera Armida with a fresh perspective. The original is a love story of a crusader and enchantress, and Armida’s mission is to seduce, while the soldier’s is to resist. Gordon-Stewart’s version tells the story of an opera troupe “through the lens of a […]

Charlottesville Playwrights Collective finds its feet

By Leslie Scott-Jones Charlottesville has always looked at itself as a place where art can flourish, and the theater scene is no different. From Four County Players to the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to Live Arts, our area has enough live theater to go around. On any given night there is an opportunity […]

ART Pick: Will and Whit

Laura Lee Gulledge wrote her young adult graphic novel Will and Whit as a show of gratitude to Charlottesville, a place that helped her pursue her ambitions. Four years later, the story is coming to life in the form of a musical in the very town where it began. Using live drawing and shadow puppetry, […]