October 5, 2018

It was great to see our buddy Zach Knighton (top right hand photo, with his TV co-stars) back on the small screen this week. It was episode two of the reboot of Magnum P.I. (CBS, Mondays at 9), described as follows: “Magnum P.I. is a modern take on the classic series centering on Thomas Magnum, a decorated former Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. A charming rogue, Magnum lives in a guest cottage on Robin’s Nest, the luxurious estate where he works as a security consultant to supplement his P.I. business. The "majordomo" of the property is Juliet Higgins, a beautiful and commanding disavowed MI:6 agent whose second job is to keep Magnum in line. When Magnum needs back-up, he turns to his trusted buddies and fellow POW survivors, Theodore ‘TC’ Calvin, a former Marine chopper pilot who runs Island Hoppers, a helicopter tour business, and Orville ‘Rick’ Wright (our pal Zach), a former Marine door-gunner-turned-impresario of Oahu's coolest nightclub and the most connected man on the island. With keys to a vintage Ferrari in one hand and aviator sunglasses in the other, Thomas Magnum is back on the case!” Zach starred at Virginia Rep in the early aughts while completing his theatre major at VCU. He played one of the two Hardy Boys for our Children’s Theatre, and, on our Signature Season, the son in Side Man, the Tony Award-winning / Pulitzer nominated play about a jazz musician and his progeny. So be sure to tune in next Monday, and tell your friends. The new Magnum is a lot of fun, Zach is great, as always, and now’s our chance to help boost the ratings a bit and turn his latest Hollywood adventure into a hit!

RISC stands for Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities. RISC is a powerful community of 22 multi-faith congregations throughout RVA united to address root-level injustice. Last year the study groups at RISC discovered that a disproportionate number of students suspended and expelled from Chesterfield County Public Schools were on the autism spectrum and/or suffered from delayed reactions to trauma. They identified the need for more trauma-informed training of Chesterfield school personnel as a means of keeping these children in school, rather than removing them. Chesterfield Schools acknowledged the need, and worked with RISC to identify and hire professionals to conduct the training. Last Sunday, 60 middle and high school students from four RISC congregations (Bon Air Presbyterian, Ginter Park Presbyterian, Congregation Or Ami, and Ebenezer Baptist) attended Curious Incident as Virginia Rep’s guests, and experienced the story of Christopher, a 15-year-old on the autism spectrum, and the challenges he had to learn to overcome. Immediately following the performance, excited students moved down front to discuss the show with cast members Michael Manocchio (Christopher), Joe Pabst (Ed, his father), and Andrew Boothby (Rev. Peters and others). All of us at Virginia Rep are proud to partner with these outstanding young men and women as they seek positive solutions to injustice in our community.  

When our historic November Theatre opened on Christmas Day 1911, the leading man in the acting company was none other than Frank Morgan, who would become world-famous 28 years later in and as The Wizard of Oz. When Morgan was preparing to leave Oz in a giant balloon, determined to help Dorothy return to Kansas, he proclaimed to his faithful Ozians that he was off on a new adventure to “confer, converse, and otherwise hobnob with my brother wizards.” Nathaniel Shaw, Artistic Director here at Virginia Rep (aka Resident Wizard), had the opportunity to hobnob with two of his brother wizards, and he didn’t even have to fly away in a balloon to pull it off. The Wizards came here! Earlier this week, during independent visits to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Tom Quaintance (Producing Artistic Director of Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk) and Ethan McSweeny (the newly anointed Artistic Director of American Shakespeare Center in Staunton) paid a call on Virginia Rep to see firsthand what all the excitement is about. It’s always a pleasure and a privilege to welcome Virginia’s top artistic leaders to our capital city, and to share the energy that’s propelling our company to the next level.  

It’s always a good thing if your president happens also to be an award-winning filmmaker. Jerry Williams, President of the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle (producers of the annual Artsie Awards), happens to be just that. He and numerous accomplices within the Central Virginia theatre community have been working diligently for over a month on the four videos that will be part of the Artsie Awards Celebration, beginning at 7 PM this Sunday in our historic November Theatre. Finally, this week, Jerry applied the finishing touches and the four videos were finished! Two highlight the careers and extraordinary accomplishments of the late Jack Welsh (Virginia Rep mentor if ever there was one) and the very much alive Roy Proctor (Richmond theatre critic [and playwright] extraordinaire). A third video addresses the evening’s theme (Location, Location, Location) with various luminaries past and present discussing how their facilities advanced and/or challenged their work. Lastly, the fourth video is the annual In Memoriam tribute to the six theatre artists who left us during the 2017-18 season. If you’d like to join RVA’s favorite actors, directors, designers, etc. for the community-wide theatre party of the year, tickets are still available for $20 by calling the Virginia Rep box office at 282-2620. All proceeds go to benefit the Theatre Artist Fund.