August 23, 2019 -- Volume VI, Issue 29

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead

Immediately following the ceremonial Groundbreaking on June 24, the bulldozers rolled off of the vast lawn to the east of the Chester Library (the future site of our Perkinson Center for the Arts), and moved to the just completed new parking lot located southwest of the Chester Library. Over the last nine weeks, Whiting-Turner (the contracting company in charge of building our new facilities) has been creating the expanded parking that, come November 2020, will accommodate simultaneous full houses in both the Library AND the Perkinson Center. That section of new parking has now been completed, so the old parking has now been closed to library traffic. The old lot will begin to serve as the staging area for the construction of the Perkinson Center itself. A fence has been erected around the construction site (the aforementioned lawn), and, as early as next week, digging will commence. It seems hard to believe, but everyone who should know continues to say that everything is on schedule, and we will be able to take occupancy of our new Arts Center in Aug 2020, one short year from now. We are beginning to plan opening ceremonies for Nov 2020, and a full holiday season of festive performances in Dec. Strategic planning will continue Sept through March. Expect season announcements immediately thereafter. Hang on to your hats, folks, it’s happening!  

The Richmond Theatre Critics Circle “Artsie” Award nominations were announced this week. Theatre artists working in Virginia Rep productions and co-productions received 52 nods for excellence. Once and The Wiz were both nominated for Best Musical, and Gloria (co-produced with Cadence) was nominated for Best Play. Artistic Director Nathaniel Shaw and Associate Artistic Director Kikau Alvaro will be competing in both the Best Direction of a Musical and Best Choreography categories, with Nathaniel being recognized for directing and choreographing Once, and Kikau being honored for his direction and choreography of The Wiz and his choreography of Atlantis. Four Virginia Rep staff members were nominated for their outstanding work at colleague theatres: Debra Clinton (TRAIN staff, nominated for her direction of Grey Gardens at RTP), Rachel Dilliplane (Artistic Associate, nominated for her performance in Red Velvet at Quill and as part of the ensemble of Laramie Project at RTP), Amber Martinez (Arts in Education Manager, nominated for her performance in Dance Nation at TheatreLAB), and Chandler Hubbard (Research Specialist, nominated for his original script for Animal Control at the Firehouse). TheatreLAB, RTP, Cadence, 5^th Wall, Quill, Firehouse, and the Mill shared an additional 83 nominations. Awards will be announced Oct 27. Congratulations to one and all. 

Our entertaining production of Forever Plaid—about as much musical comedy fun as you can fit into 90 minutes—concludes its crowd-pleasing run this weekend at Hanover Tavern. Featuring the unbeatable talents of Mitchell Ashe, PJ Llewellyn, Ian Page, Caleb Wade, David Yohe (Dir of Orchestras at Midlothian Middle), and Travis West, all under the expert direction and choreography of Wes Seals, Plaid explores the great American songs popularized by four-part harmony guy groups like The Four Aces and The Four Lads, and includes hits from Three Coins in a Fountain to No Not Much to Kingston Market and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. In a nutshell, it’s chock-a-block full of tight harmonies and rollicking fun. The medley that features every highlight from The Ed Sullivan Show in five minutes is, all by itself, worth the price of admission. We dedicate the show to the memory of our great friend, Camilla “Millie” Price, who died earlier this year. Millie not only attended every show we’ve done in the last ten or so years, she also donated her pristine 1999 Buick LeSabre, which now provides transportation to guest artists who join us from out-of-town. Millie would have smiled herself silly during Forever Plaid. So if you can make it out to Hanover Tavern during the final weekend, please do so, and raise a glass in Millie’s honor before sitting back and letting the boys sing you to paradise. 

Camp Virginia Rep is nearing the end of another adventurous summer. Earlier this evening we kicked off the culmination of our next-to-last summer camp with the first of four public performances of The Addams Family. This specially adapted Broadway musical comedy features rising 4^th through 12^th graders who’ve been hard at work at our Summer Showtime camp. With direction by Irene Kuykendall, music direction by Anthony Smith, choreography by Christine Wyatt, and first-rate design by Virginia Rep’s team of pros, our super-talented young cast gets to strut its stuff complete with professional trappings. Earlier this summer, we presented four other camps: Young Performers Institute (a training camp for middle and high school students), Stage Explorers (a survey of drama, music, dance, and production craft for 1^st - 6^th graders), Show Stoppers (a one-week musical theatre intensive for 3^rd - 8^th graders), and Rep@CAT (a half-day camp at CAT Theatre for 1^st – 5^th graders). Camp Virginia Rep concludes next week with Dramatic Adventures, which stretches the imaginations and language skills of preschoolers through dramatic explorations of children’s books. Tickets for The Addams Family are only $10. Shows are at our Willow Lawn Children’s Theatre tomorrow at 10:30 and 2:00, and Sunday at 2:00. It’s the family-friendly bargain of the summer! You don’t want to miss it. 

Thanks for bearing with us as we at Good News Friday enjoyed our annual 2-week Aug hiatus. We received a couple calls seeking assurance that we hadn’t dropped you from our lists, but most of you seemed to sense that the fortnight disappearance of this e-missive marked only those lazy-crazy-hazy days of summer, and you waited silently for today’s reappearance. We observe this annual break for two reasons. 1 – it’s summer and we love a vacation, and 2 – there’s not that much going on in RVA in mid-Aug. Two recent events did provide us with some wonderful two-way conversations during this time apart. One was the completely joyful event of dancer/choreographer/teacher Frances Wessells’ 100^th Birthday party. (Check her out of Wikipedia!) A legion of arts lovers gathered to honor one of RVA’s greatest and still most vibrant inspirations. The other equally joyful commemoration, tempered as was fitting with respect and remembrance, was the celebration of life ceremony for Jerry Finch, former managing editor of the Richmond News Leader (and longstanding Virginia Rep patron, participant, and friend). Jerry died this month at age 92. We were glad to have the chance to share our love with his wife Nancy and their children. We will be dedicating an upcoming production to Jerry’s memory in honor of his endless contributions to our community.