Hats Off to Dr. Seuss, Puppetry, the Camel City Jazz Orchestra, and Tony Abbott

Today on the show we'll take our hats off to Dr. Seuss. Bethany Chafin leads the way with her conversation with Bill Dreyer. Bill's the curator and director for the Dr. Seuss art collection now on display at the Art Shop in Greensboro. Then from the cat in the hat we jump back in time to when Swing was King. It's open rehearsal with tenor sax player Matt Kosma and the Camel City Jazz Orchestra every Monday night at Krankies and you're invited. We'll move on from Big Band to Bunnies, and the Winston-Salem Children's Puppet Theatre production of “A Tall Tale of Peter Rabbit”. Granny Blue Ridge is here with her posse of young puppeteers from Heritage Theatre. Their motto is Live it To Learn It, and this weekend they're giving back to The Second Harvest Food bank. We wrap things up with poet and author Tony Abbott. Ever wonder what it'd be like to chat it up with an angel? Tony sure has, and you'll be a fly on the wall during the Angel Dialogues, his new book out on Lorimer Press. Angels, bunnies, jazz and all the green eggs and ham you can eat next on Triad Arts Weekend.

Bill Dreyer, Hats Off to Dr. Seuss and The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss

Before there was the Cat in the Hat, there was Bartholomew Cubbins, and Bartholomew had 500 Hats.  Like Bartholomew, Dr. Seuss or Theodor Geisel hat many (hundreds of) hats of his own.  In conjunction with the 75^th anniversary of Seuss's 2^nd Book, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, the exhibit “Hats off to Dr. Seuss" is touring the country and is now in Greensboro.  Twenty-six hats from Dr. Seuss's incredible collection are on display at The Art Shop in Greensboro.  Along with the hats, visitors to the gallery can see works from the Secret Art of Dr. Seuss, limited edition prints of original works from Geisel's private collection (all works by Seuss himself).

And don't forget about the collection of unorthodox taxidermy.  These three dimensional sculptures, based on Geisel's orginals done in the 30's include such fantastic creatures as the Goo-Goo-Eyed Tasmanian Wolghast, the Sea-Going Dilemma Fish and the Andulovian Grackler. Bill Dreyer is the curator and director for the Art of Dr. Seuss Collection.  Bethany Chafin spoke with him and began by asking Bill how he became involved with the Dr. Seuss collection.

The Art Shop is located at 3900 West Market Street in Greensboro.  "The Hats off to Dr. Seuss" and "The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss" exhibit runs through April 19^th.  The Gallery is open Monday through Friday 10am-6pm Saturday 10 to 5.  

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Camel City Jazz Orchestra

You know back in the 1940s, before the onslaught of the bee bop jazz masters like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Big Band music was the music of the day. Everybody knew their Duke from their Dorsey, and their Count from Calloway, and the excitement surrounding swing cut across race, gender and age barriers. Today in the Triad you can experience that musical magic for free Monday nights at 7:00PM at Krankies Coffee in Winston-Salem. David Ford's been there, he's loved this music since he was a kid, and he can tell you this band swings! It's the Camel City Jazz Orchestra, an all- star lineup of the Triad's finest jazz musicians, and they are dedicated to bringing you the highest quality musical and educational experience possible every time.

Tenor sax player and band co-organizer Matt Kosma leads the group. He dropped by to share his love for jazz.

You can hear Matt with his quartet live Wednesday nights at Brothers on Lewisville/Clemmons Rd. from 6:30-9:30pm every week. 

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Winston-Salem Children's Puppet Theatre

We're gonna do a hop skip and a jump from Big Band to Bunny rabbits next. Winston-Salem Children's Puppet Theatre & The Second Harvest Food Bank present: A Tall Tale of Peter Rabbit this weekend. Saturday, April 12^th at 11 and 2, and Sunday the 13^th at 2 at Heritage Theatre 4630 Old Walkertown Road. There you'll see and hear the puppets, muppets, rabbits and actors from Heritage Theatre perform.

Director Jane Quinn aka Granny Blue Ridge has led the group for 17 years with puppet and mask shows, re-enactments on virtually every school subject imaginable often encompassing the Common Core Curriculum. Their motto is Live it to Learn it and W-S Children's Puppet Theatre student actors Lillian Giles, Steven Belatta, and Michael Angell are here to share along with their fearless leader Grandma BlueRidge.

A Tall Tale of Peter Rabbit is this weekend, Saturday, April 12^th at 11 and 2, and Sunday the 13^th at 2 at Heritage Theatre 4630 Old Walkertown Road. Tickets are 8 bucks plus a can of food or donation for The Second Harvest Food Bank.

Tony Abbott

Award winning author, poet and Davidson College English Professor Emeritus Dr. Tony Abbott was named co-winner of the 2012 Brockman-Campbell Award for his collection of poetry, If Words Could Save Us. The award is given to the best book of poetry published in North Carolina the previous year. Tony's new book, published last month by Lorimer Press isn't really a collection of poems at all. It's a narrative, a wonderful story that evolves over one year. In it a poet in search of a muse receives one in the form of an angel. She teaches him among other things what it means to be human and leaves him a changed man: wiser, healthier, and more spiritually aware.

In many ways the spiritual quest of Tony's fictional poet mirrors that of his own. In the Angel Dialogues, he tackles the thorny issues of life, death, and countless others head on through dozens of captivating dialogues between aging poet and angel, and through Tony's beautiful poems. 

He'll be reading from his book at the Rowan Reading Rendezvous on Saturday, April 26 in Salisbury, NC, and the following afternoon at 3:00PM you can catch Tony at the Malaprop's Book Signing and Reading in Asheville.