STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Studio Roanoke opened its first full-length production, "The Biology Lesson and Other Experiences" by Sandy Dietrick, this past week. The building has undergone extensive renovations.

The stage lights had arrived just days before. The seats were from Aztec Rentals. But Studio Roanoke opened its first full-length production, "The Biology Lesson and Other Experiences" by Sandy Dietrick, to a warm reception Tuesday night.

The audience of 50 or so hooted, laughed and applauded frequently throughout the play -- a collection of one-woman monologues on topics ranging from the poignant to the nutty, often in the same short skit. One woman was pregnant with an alien baby; there was also a prom queen ghost.

The show started with Studio Roanoke Artistic Director Todd Ristau thanking everyone for coming. When it was over, a little more than an hour later, no one seemed to want to leave.

An audience that included Studio Roanoke board members, theater owner Kenley Smith and Dietrick, the playwright, mingled with the cast for many minutes afterward. Even during the performance, the line between performers and audience often blurred in the intimate space, as actresses handed out pictures, addressed individual audience members directly and sometimes sat among them.

Smith characterized the opening as "a test drive," and pronounced himself happy that the building, formerly New York Fashions, didn't fall down. There was actually very small chance of that, as Smith has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into the project, including extensive renovations.

Dietrick said Studio Roanoke compares favorably with many theaters she has seen in New York, where she lives. "I love this little space," she said after the show. "They're got office space and rehearsal space and dressing room space. ... It's a dream."

Among the first-night audience was Pat Wilhelms, artistic director of the new Roanoke Children's Theatre.

"That's a really cool thing they're doing," Wilhelms said.

One more leaves MMT

John Bryant, a longtime employee of Mill Mountain Theatre, has been let go, theater officials said this past week. Bryant was operations manager and did marketing for the theater. He was one of a skeletal staff that remained after the theater cancelled its season and laid off most of its employees in January because of mounting debts.

"It was sad. We had to get down to bare bones," said Development Director Daria Goode, who noted that Bryant has found another job already.

"He is missed. Every day," said the theater's only other remaining paid employee, Education Director Ginger Poole.

City Art Show update

The Roanoke City Art Show will take place this fall in the same space as last year -- the former second-floor galleries of the Art Museum of Western Virginia.

The art museum, which hosted the city art show for years, stopped doing so when it became the Taubman Museum of Art and moved into its $66 million building last year. Exhibition space for the art show, which is presented annually by the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge, has been up in the air ever since.

The arts council just recently sealed the deal for this year's 30th anniversary show with Center in the Square, which owns the former art museum space, said Laura Rawlings, arts council executive director. The show will take place from Sept. 24 through Oct. 31. For information, visit theartscouncil.org or call 224-1205.

The arts council also will move its offices to the former art museum space this summer, Rawlings said. The council, currently located on the ground floor of Center on Church, across the street from historic Fire Station No. 1, has to move because of upcoming renovation work at Center, Rawlings said. Plans call for the arts council to eventually occupy renovated third-floor offices at Center on Church, above its original home.

Guest choo-choo

The guest of honor at the O. Winston Link Museum's "Celebration at the Station" Saturday will be the legendary Roanoke-made steam engine, the 1218. The Class A locomotive will be loaned to the Link Museum by the Virginia Museum of Transportation.

The railroad heritage festival also will include Norfolk Southern business cars, ¹_8-scale train rides, face painting, telegraphy demonstrations, games, physical challenges by Gold's Gym and more.

Admission is $5 and covers entry to the museum and festival and O. Winston Link's caboose, in addition to games and activities. Bring a nonperishable food item for the Southwest Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank and receive $1 off admission.

Photographers will have an opportunity to shoot the 1218 at night, the way Link loved to, starting at 7 p.m. Tickets to the photo shoot are $25 or $30 at the gate. 982-5465; linkmuseum.org.

Art By Night

Among the eye candy on this Thursday's "Art By Night" gallery walk will be graphic novels written and illustrated by Roanoke third- through fifth-graders, on display in Center in the Square. "Art By Night" takes place from 5 to 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. For more information and a map, visit roanokeartbynight.com.

Lyn Yeatts exhibit

Paintings by Lyn Yeatts, a longtime Roanoke artist and former director of the Roanoke Fine Arts Center, a forerunner of the Taubman Museum of Art, are on exhibit at Unity Church of Roanoke Valley through June 7.

The paintings, which her son, Carl Yeatts, described as "personal reflections in pastel, by and large," are for sale. The paintings may be seen between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays and after services on Sunday, he said. Unity Church is located at 3300 Green Ridge Road, Roanoke.