June 14, 2019 -- Volume VI, Issue 21

Our Community Health + Wellness Associate, Phoenecia Hill, and Education Manager, Irene Kuykendall, have been spending most of the last 10 days conducting video interviews with the middle school students enrolled in Elkhart-Thompson’s NextUp afterschool program. In partnership with VCU Health and freelance videographer Austin Lewis, we are creating a series of six 15- to 30-second videos that encourage positive communication between parents and their adolescent children. The videos will focus on parental monitoring, parental involvement, consistency, youth empowerment, support (warmth and trust), and parental self-care. Topics were decided by VCU Health; Neci and Irene were tasked with asking the right questions to get appropriate video content from student interviews. The videos will be shown on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, and will run approximately 15 to 30 seconds each. After Austin edits clips from the interviews, the students will become stars of the videos. The first set of videos will be shown online to the Mosby/Whitcomb community and will eventually be made available citywide. We look forward to continuing the process of interviewing more students and their parents. This partnership with VCU, other agencies, students, and families will hopefully have a lasting impact in helping to build healthy and positive communities.  

The idea for Chesterfield’s new Perkinson Center for the Arts began in the 1980s when the John Rolfe Players, led from 1955 until 1995 by Dottie and Larry Armstrong, imagined a permanent home for Central VA’s first community theatre. That vision gained traction when extraordinary civic leader Betty Matthews decided to make the center a focus of her final 27 years of life. Betty died last Dec at age 92, knowing the center was becoming a reality. Chesterfield voters agreed to fund the facility in a bond referendum in 2004. The project stalled as efforts to raise necessary community funding were hampered by the economic slowdown that began in 2007. In 2012, Betty recruited local business leader Hugh Cline to coordinate a fund drive to meet the County-set goal for the community’s portion before the bonds’ expiration date. Hugh and his committee launched a fundraising effort that yielded over $1.1 million in six months. In response, the Board of Supervisors approved measures in 2014 to allow the arts center to move forward. Since then, a $1,000,000 gift from W. Baxter Perkinson Jr (pictured) and his wife Elaine, a $350,000 gift from Donna Dean Stevens and her husband Jayson, many other private donations large and small, and additional funding approved by the Board of Supervisors for the public-private partnership have completed the $16.8 million budget. Groundbreaking will take place Mon, June 24, 10 a.m., 11800 Centre St., in Chester Village Green. Please join us! 

It was Saturday in New York, and our trip was nearing its end. Terrie and I woke up and headed to the Galaxy Diner on 9^th for one of those high energy NYC breakfast experiences we love, where the tables are packed, the joint is jumpin’, and waiters fly like the wind. Filled with adrenaline, Terrie hopped on the subway for DUMBO Open Studios on the Brooklyn waterfront, and I headed to the TKTS line. I arrived as they opened at 10, and used the Returning Customer line to walk right up to Window #1. I bought my matinee ticket for Burn This starring Adam Driver. The late Lanford Wilson is one of my favorite playwrights, and I’d never seen Burn This. Plus I admired Adam Driver in BlacKkKlansman. At 10:10, ticket in hand, I headed to W. 40th to pay my respects to the Drama Book Shop, THE top theatre bookstore in the US. I’ve been going to the DBS, in its pre- and post-2001 locations, during every NYC trip since my mentor, Jack Welsh, introduced me to it in 1970. And yes, I knew it had closed in Jan, but I couldn’t be there then, so I needed to say “good-bye”—and, thank God, “see you again soon.” As most theatre junkies know, the Drama Book Shop was saved by Lin-Manuel Miranda and some of his Hamilton buddies who purchased the business three weeks before it closed. They announced plans to reopen in another location later this year. More on DBS and Burn This next week.

It’s June at Hanover Tavern, that time when Tavern staff tells us, “Get outa here; it’s wedding season; come back again in July!!” So that’s the plan. On July 19, we’ll open our 14^th summer show since returning theatrical programming to the Tavern in 2006. This year’s annual funfest, running through Aug 25, will be the hugely popular Off Broadway hit, Forever Plaid. The show is a revue of the songs popularized by the close-harmony “guy groups” that charmed socks off the bobbysoxers in the 1950s (think The Four Aces and The Four Freshman). The story is simple: a quartet of high school pals lose their dream of recording an album when their cherry red Mercury convertible is driven off the road by a bus filled with Catholic schoolgirls on their way to see the Beatles’ American debut on Ed Sullivan. The show begins with the Plaids returning from the afterlife for one final chance at musical glory. Playing the four heartthrobs will be Mitchell Ashe, PJ Llewellyn, Ian Page, and Caleb Wade. Plaids is directed and choreographed by Wes Seals, with music direction by Travis West. Featured songs include hits such as Three Coins in a Fountain, Moments to Remember, Sixteen Tons, Lady of Spain, Shangri-La, and Love is a Many Splendored Thing. For a fun evening of great comedy and heavenly harmonies, there’s no better place to visit this summer than Hanover Tavern and Forever Plaid. 

Confusion seems to be lessening. Whew. I fear it seems like boasting, but these snippets are representative of all of this week’s comments. From Anne Shotwell – “I think you’ve done a great job explaining your varied commitments and how they fit together for the good of RVA. When you taught a class at Osher, I was so moved by how important Virginia Rep, Theatre IV, and Hanover Tavern have been to the health and well-being of our community. I hope your new joint commitment will continue that long tradition.” From Linda Church – “I just want you to know I LOVE your emails!! Especially about my hometown NYC.” From Virginia Forster – “Wow! I never doubted your ability to cope enthusiastically with many things at a time, but seeing it all laid out in one document made me realize how much I had not read carefully in past editions. I will eagerly await news of each iron in Virginia Rep’s fiery forge.” From B A Dillon – “Richmond has always been a good theatre town (at least in my 90 years!). In the 60s I volunteered at the Virginia Museum Theatre in a variety of backstage chores and also in the box office. I’m delighted that you’re taking on this new challenge. Cultural life in Richmond and area will be much richer for this partnership.” And from Barbara Kincaid – “I love the updates. Watched the Tonys last night. Guess the world now knows about Hadestown.”