Triad Arts

All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 by Peter Rothstein, with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy Takach, is based on a true story that took place during the first winter of World War I. Next week, Minneapolis-based Theatre Latte Da brings All is Calm to the Triad. They'll be joined in performance by the internationally acclaimed men's vocal ensemble Cantus with patriotic tunes, trench songs, medieval Scottish ballads, and holiday carols from England, Wales, France and Germany. 

The New York Times says Joel Fan's piano playing has a “…powerful touch and big sound with the sparkle and rhythmic suppleness of a jazz improviser”. That suppleness enables him to take on a huge variety of musical styles from Beethoven's Triple Concerto performances alongside Yo-Yo Ma and Jonathan Gandelsman to new works like Derek Bermel's Funk Studies.  Joel's appreciation for composition grew from his longtime mentor, the late American composer/pianist Leon Kirchner who died in 2009. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and his music were at the center of Joel's recent CD Leon Kirchner Revelations on Verdant World Records which we sample today now. This is Kirchner's last work The Forbidden. Joel Fan spoke with David Ford by phone from his studio in New York.

 

Our Town, by American playwright Thornton Wilder turned 75 earlier this year.

Street Scene by Elmer Rice won the 20th century playwright a Pulitzer Prize for drama. Its authentic portrayal of daily life as experienced by the colorful residents of a gritty New York neighborhood in 1928 endures to this day, and it's coming to the Triad compliments of the UNC School of the Arts. Street Scene opens Wednesday night, November 6th at 7:30 PM at Catawba Theatre, Performance Place on the UNCSA campus. The play is co-directed by UNCSA faculty Matt Bulluck, and Dean of Drama Carl Forsman who spoke with David Ford about it.

Twin City Stage presents Monty Python's Spamalot with music by John Du Prez and books and lyrics by Eric Idle. The zany musical mixes Monty Python mania with the King Arthur legend and the best of Broadway and it opens Friday night, November 8th at the Arts Council Theatre. It'll run through the 24th with evening performances at 8 PM and Sunday matinees at 2 PM. Tickets are $22 bucks with discounts for seniors and students. Twin City Stage director Gene Johnson reminds us what made the Pythons so great.

Touring Theatre of North Carolina is once again going beyond entertainment, this time with the premiere of an original production in their first ever Chamber Series. DEPLOYED is a Readers Theatre production featuring poetry and prose written by veterans and their family members. It opens Friday night, November 8th at 8:00 PM and runs through the 16th at Mack and Mack in Greensboro. DEPLOYED includes entries from seven different wars in which America has participated on foreign soil.