In a performance that combines elements of opera, gospel, jazz, dance, and theater, Victory Hall Opera presents Gullah Meditations—the first significant new arrangements of “unknown” Gullah Geechee spirituals in 100 years. Tenor Victor Ryan Robertson and his collaborator, pianist Adrianne Duncan, produced the new arrangements based on 19th-century spirituals born out of the distinct culture […]
In a performance that combines elements of opera, gospel, jazz, dance, and theater, Victory Hall Opera presents Gullah Meditations—the first significant new arrangements of “unknown” Gullah Geechee spirituals in 100 years. Tenor Victor Ryan Robertson and his collaborator, pianist Adrianne Duncan, produced the new arrangements based on 19th-century spirituals born out of the distinct culture […]
Charlottesville Opera celebrates the timeless works of Rodgers and Hammerstein with Oh, What a Beautiful, Enchanted, Impossible Evening. Featuring performers James Robinson, Nicola Santoro, Kristen Marie Gillis, Andrew Payne, and piano by Jeremy Thompson, the show weaves selections from the golden age of musical theater with the opera company’s history of performing favorites such as […]
Spotlighting Shakespeare at his most playful, The Two Gentlemen of Verona follows Proteus and Valentine, two young men who swear nothing can come between them—until amorous affections enter the scene. Loyalties are tested, disguises donned, and hearts broken as friendship tangles with romance and characters stumble through the beautiful, messy chaos of growing up. And […]
Some childhood interests turn out to be just a passing fancy. But that was not the case for Fiona Balestrieri when she was a young musician. “My first instrument was actually the fiddle,” she says. “I only played that for a year because I discovered the Irish flute. … The sound of the wooden flute […]
A condensed all-female production of Shakespeare’s King Lear reimagines the Bard’s darkest masterpiece as a compelling exploration of maternal authority and sisterhood in Queen Lear. Mounted by Cottage Industry, a women-only performance and production troupe based in Charlottesville, the one-hour play places veteran actress Kate Bennis in the titular role under the direction of local […]
Long before he stepped onto a stage, Jim Waive was putting on a show. “Our household was filled with music,” recalls Patti Rightmier, one of Jim’s three older sisters. “My mom loved music. My mom listened to Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass…” “Tom Jones, the 5th Dimension—a variety,” adds Judy Crist, another sister. “And Jim—as […]
For families—that is, people with kids—there may be no better local entertainment this summer than driving out to Barboursville for The SpongeBob Musical by Four County Players. Sure, you could go see the latest Pixar-y mega-movie, but films aren’t able to offer one critical element: real live humans performing with the thrill of theatrical danger. […]
Live Arts offers up a teen show doubleheader of Mel Brooks’ musical Young Frankenstein and Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus. Monstrous laughter ensues when Frederick Frankenstein, grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein, inherits his family’s Transylvania estate and quickly takes up the mad sciences in Young Frankenstein. In Coriolanus, Rome is experiencing famine-induced unrest, which is disrupted […]
American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars Playhouse, Through August 2 As far as Shakespeare plays go, The Winter’s Tale is stuffed full of the tropes audiences are familiar with from the Bard’s more well-tread works: jealous rage aimed at assumed infidelity, disguised identities, forbidden love, and misuse of power. But in the reliably capable hands of the […]
The Virginia Theatre Festival keeps rolling with The Heart Sellers, a deeply moving play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Lloyd Suh. Set in 1973 in the wake of the Hart–Celler Act’s abolition of immigration quotas in America, two 20-something immigrant women meet by chance in a grocery store on Thanksgiving night. The women spend an evening […]