In the wings: Ash Lawn Opera’s Madama Butterfly alights the Paramount stage

Every summer, Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall floods with a subtle siege: opera singers, orchestra members and technical crew members from all over the country. Unlike participants in traveling productions, they arrive to co-create a few gem-like original performances, shows that debut at The Paramount Theater under the direction (and extended logistical planning) of Ash Lawn Opera. […]

ARTS Pick: Antony and Cleopatra

Best known for the love story of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare did not stop there. Antony and Cleopatra, one of his last romantic plays, is an epic unravelling of life and death, passion and hatred, filtered through peace and war in a narrative that circles the lives of two prominent figures during the dictatorship of Octavius […]

ARTS Pick: The Audience

From the Oscars to the Oliviers to the Tonys, the performance world can’t throw enough awards at Dame Helen Mirren for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II. The legendary actress reprises her royal role in the National Theatre’s encore HD screening of The Audience, an original West End play that draws back the curtain on […]

Leading man: Caruso Brown takes his drama ministry to the edge

Once upon a time, Charlottesville-based playwright Caruso Brown was a terribly shy, introverted student at Virginia State College (now University). He grew up writing poems. That may have been the end of it, if a drama director at the school hadn’t read one of Brown’s poems and insisted that he perform it during the school’s […]

ARTS Pick: Nick Vatterott

The L.Y.A.O Comedy Showcase has made Charlottesville a more frequent option for smaller tours featuring up-and-coming comics. Nick Vatterott is one of them, and though you may not recognize him by name, chances are, you will soon. Vatterott’s comedy is quick and sharp, and he utilizes his improv experience on stage, acting out stories and […]

ARTS Pick: Our Town

Four County Players, in collaboration with the Hamner Theater, rekindles the neighborly drama and simple charm of last-century Americana in its production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town. Thornton Wilder’s play within a play showcases the appeal of everyday lives made extraordinary through observation, and remains exceedingly popular as it approaches its 80th anniversary. Through […]

ARTS Pick: Lewis Black

Known for animated, angry facial expressions and loud, rambling rants, Lewis Black has emerged at the forefront of satirical, political comedy. Black’s been a regular on “The Daily Show” as well as starring in a number of his own comedy specials including “Black on Broadway” and “The Root of All Evil,” the latter in which […]