Thursday, March 01, 2007
Edutainment
Engrossed with the Anna Nicole Smith paternity drama? Know more about Britney Spears than your own neighbor? Take a break from the empty-calorie pop-o-sphere and redeem yourself with
'Phantom of the Opera'
WHAT Here's your chance to re-live an old-school movie experience from the 1920s, when folks got all gussied up for a night at the theater and live music accompanied silent movies. The Grandin Theatre will screen the classic horror film, which inspired six remakes and the blockbuster Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. The 1929 re-issue stars Lon Chaney as the masked composer who lurks within the cellars of the Paris Opera House.
THE MUSIC Hollins University graduate student Matt Marshall has organized a string quintet of local musicians -- called the Reel Music Ensemble -- who will perform his original score during the movie while he plays the keyboard. Marshall has composed and performed original music for classic silent movies at the Virginia Film Festival since 2001.
PONDER THIS Not only does Marshall want to expose us to an almost-forgotten art form, but he points out that the pace of silent movies will force us to think more critically about the meanings of the images. "I'm trying to help our attention-deficit generation slow down."
WHEN March 11, 3 p.m.
WHERE Grandin Theatre, Roanoke
COST $10
CALL 345-6177
'Hamlet' dinner theater
WHAT If you've always been meaning to catch some classic Shakespeare, this is a good opportunity. Especially since "Hamlet" was recently named No. 6 of the 10 greatest books of all time by Time magazine (derived from the top 10 lists of 125 of the world's most celebrated writers). The American Shakespeare Center and Mary Baldwin College have teamed up to present the tragedy at the June Bug Center in Floyd, before they pack up and head to the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton. You should also know that "Hamlet" is directed by Jaq Bessell, a former head of research at Shakespeare's Globe in London and current instructor at Mary Baldwin, so expect genuine Elizabethan-era touches, including universal lighting, acoustic music and sword fighting.
DINNER The buffet menu will feature Danish recipes (get it?), including "Hamlet's Ham," "Ophelia's Apples," meatballs, vegetarian options and desserts.
PONDER THIS While women were forbidden from acting professionally during Shakespeare's time, this production of "Hamlet" features a predominantly female cast, including the title role (Anna Northam).
WHEN March 9 and 10. Dinner buffet at 6:30 p.m.; show begins at 7:30.
WHERE Black Box Theater, June Bug Center, Floyd (½ mile south of the Floyd traffic light on Virginia 8).
COST $15. Seating is limited.
CALL (540) 745-6550
Karen Finley
WHO She's the provocative New York City-based author and performance artist who has slathered herself in chocolate, painted with her own breast milk, played Tom Hanks' doctor in "Philadelphia" and penned a book in which Martha Stewart has an affair with George W. Bush.
You may remember Finley from the National Endowment for the Arts flap back in the early 1990s, when then-Sen. Jesse Helms called her work "indecent." She's the author of "Shock Treatment," "Enough is Enough," "Pooh Unplugged" and "A Different Kind of Intimacy." Finley will discuss art and politics as a visiting artist of the Hollins dance department.
PONDER THIS Finley is currently a professor of art and public policy at the Tisch School of the Arts, and she recently spoke at the International Symposium on the Arts in Society at New York University. According to the symposium's Web site, its purpose was to "create an interdisciplinary conversation on the role of the arts in society." Hollins dance department co-chair Donna Faye Burchfield is hoping Finley's Roanoke talk will build on that conversation and "expand the notion of dance and performance [for students] and for our community."
WHEN 2 p.m. Saturday
WHERE Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center, Room 119, Hollins University
COST Free
CALL 362-6596
'The God Committee'
WHAT Attic Productions stages this new play by Mark St. Germain about the inner workings of hospital transplant decision-making. This is only the second production at the Attic's new D. Geraldine Lawson Performing Arts Center just off U.S. 220 in Fincastle.
PONDER THIS If you had to decide whom would get a heart within two hours, would you consider the patient's age or race? Religion? Would fame or the lack of insurance coverage sway you? These are the exact questions that the play's characters struggle with.
WHEN 7:30 tonight through Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Also March 8-10.
WHERE D. Geraldine Lawson Performing Arts Center, 7490 Roanoke Road, Fincastle.
COST $12; $10 for students and senior citizens.
CALL (540) 473-1001
Moscow Festival Ballet's 'Don Quixote'
WHAT The touring Russian ballet company performs the literary classic, which is choreographed by Morius Petipa and set to the music of Leon Miekus.
PONDER THIS: Can you fight injustice through chivalry? And how, exactly, can Don Quixote battle windmills in ballet slippers?
WHEN March 27, 8 p.m.
WHERE Bondurant Auditorium, Preston Hall, Radford University
COST $15; $7.50, children
CALL (540) 831-5420
David Sedaris
WHO If you'd like to blend a night of literary excellence with belly laughs, reserve your seat now. You may remember him as the hilarious elf from his radio essay "The Santaland Diaries." He's a master of satire and self-deprecation, often writing about his past jobs (like that elf stint at Macy's) and family life (his sister is comedian Amy Sedaris). He's been named Humorist of the Year by Time magazine in 2001, won the Thurber Prize for American Humor and has written bestselling books, including "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim," from which he'll read selections in his return visit to Jefferson Center. Take note: His October 2004 appearance sold out.
PONDER THIS New York Magazine says Sedaris "may be the most brilliantly witty New Yorker since Dorothy Parker."
WHEN April 11, 7:30 p.m.
WHERE Jefferson Center, Roanoke
COST $26, $32 or $38
CALL 345-2550
