ARTS Pick: Tosca

Puccini’s Tosca—an arresting thriller about lust, political corruption, and murder—is brought to life by Patricia Racette in the lead role of the jealous diva who gets duped by the villainous Scarpia, and is denied her true love. Once famously referred to as a “shabby little shocker,” the HD opera viewing is proceeded by a free […]

ASC’s She Stoops To Conquer stands on comic timing

With a tilt of her head and a cascade of red curls, Kate Hardcastle considered her suitor across stage. “You’re so great a favorite there, you say?” “Yes, my dear,” Young Charles Marlow grinned, determined to prove to this beautiful barmaid his popularity at the Ladies Club. Swaggering toward the stage right audience, he looked […]

Savion Glover teaches students of tap to look within

Tap dancer Savion Glover can see the future of his art form. “Where do I see it going? Wherever I am. Tap’s going wherever I am,” he told C-VILLE Weekly in a recent phone interview. Glover is the modern day face of tap, on a mission to reinvigorate a dance more closely associated with black […]

PVCC reaches out to the community for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

When Tom Stoppard wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, an absurdist comedy about two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he was only 27 years old. Trapped in a nebulous otherworld, courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern debate the nature of freedom and fate from lives pre-scripted to death. Comic dialogue coupled with philosophical themes, including the use […]

Filmmaker and actor Brian Wimer on freedom in expression

“There’s a point in Peter Pan when Peter and Wendy are pretending to be parents to the Lost Boys. Peter says, ‘Are we playing or is this real?’ Wendy says, ‘Oh it’s a game, but it’s real.’ Eventually Peter says, ‘I’m tired of playing this game, let’s play a different one.’ But that’s the reality […]

The Virginia Film Festival spotlights up-and-coming filmmakers

The red carpets are rolling out as the Virginia Film Festival returns for its twenty-sixth year. While the schedule once again offers the caliber of cinematic fare, guests, and events that have made it a local institution, this year’s line-up distinguishes itself by beefing up the local and independent offerings with more slots for undiscovered […]

A conversation with Hitchcock ingénue Tippi Hedren

Last year’s HBO film The Girl depicted the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, and his discovery of Tippi Hedren, who went under contract with Hitch in 1961 and starred in his films The Birds and Marnie. The movie revealed the director’s obsessive desire to control and seek favor from his “ice cool […]

ARTS Pick: David Lindsay-Abaire

Learn about life as a working playwright, lyricist, librettist, and screenwriter in an interactive Q&A session with Pulitzer Prize winner David Lindsay-Abaire. Part of the UVA Drama Department’s Keenan Lecture Series, Lindsay-Abaire reflects on his 2011 Broadway play Good People, now in performance at Richmond’s Cadence Theatre Company, as well as his Pulitzer Prize-winning 2006 […]

ARTS Pick: Crazy for You

Adapted for the stage by notable playwright Ken Ludwig, Crazy for You is set to the music of George and Ira Gershwin, and takes place in the bustling 1930s. Robert Chapel directs the heartwarming tale as it follows the dreams of main character Bobby Child, a playboy and future banker with a musical soul, in a production […]

ARTS Pick: Mainstage One

Charlottesville Ballet’s Mainstage One mixes classic and eclectic dance pieces “Grand Pas de Deux” from Don Quixote and the “Odalisques Pas de Trois” from Les Corsaire together with new choreography from guest R. Colby Damon of Philadelphia and co-director Sara Clayborne. The evening of dramatic physical expression also includes the premiere of new work from […]