I give. What’s a theorbo? For that matter, what’s a “serata?” Apollo’s Fire, a Knight Arts grantee, in its winter concert, “The Intimate Vivaldi,” is the place to find the answers. Actually a theorbo is a plucked string instrument and belongs in the lute family, but had its origins apparently in the need for its […]
Article · January 18, 2013 by Roger Durbin
Shades of James Agee’s “A Death in the Family.” The storyline of Geoffrey Nauffts’ “Next Fall” revolves around a family reeling from the loss of a loved one in a traffic accident. Some subplots line up too — two central characters to whom religion is the big elephant in their relationship, and alcohol and drug […]
Article · January 16, 2013 by Roger Durbin
DANCECleveland, a Knight Arts grantee, first brought the famed LINES Ballet to the Akron area six years ago. This year it’s bringing it back again, only this time for two performances in Playhouse Square. What a welcome thing, for LINES Ballet, which is led by Alonzo King, who formed the group in 1982 and has […]
Article · January 11, 2013 by Roger Durbin
Don’t tell anyone, but Tuesday Musical, a Knight arts grantee, and The Cleveland Orchestra have been having an ongoing affair for nearly one hundred years. And their bond is as strong as ever. The orchestra was founded in 1918, and records show, according to Barbara Feld, executive director of TM, that the orchestra first got together […]
Article · January 9, 2013 by Roger Durbin
The Dance Institute at The University of Akron is re-adapting Alexander Ostrovsky’s Russian fairy tale, “The Snow Maiden” to have it fit a mid-winter setting. Originally the story ballet was set in a Russian forest as peasants celebrate the turn of a new year, and thus a new beginning. The idea is the same, just […]
Article · January 4, 2013 by Roger Durbin
As a cure for the wintertime blues, Akron Civic Theatre, a Knight Arts grantee, is bringing an island beach party and the ever-popular University of Akron Steel Drum Band to drum away what ails you. The Steel Drum Band generates an audience wherever it appears. The group shows up often during at the Downtown Art […]
Article · January 2, 2013 by Roger Durbin
We are used to the Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture/New World Performance Lab bringing cutting edge plays to the Balch Street Theatre. This time things are different. Instead of providing the actors and director, CATAC is taking the role of host by presenting “Warriors Don’t Cry,” a one-woman intense drama making the rounds […]
Article · December 28, 2012 by Roger Durbin
Things are happening at the Akron Art Museum, a Knight Arts grantee. Change is in the air for 2013. First off, current director and CEO of the museum, Mitchell Kahan, is leaving after 26 years at the helm of the institution at the end of this week. Kahan has been a mighty force for the […]
Article · December 26, 2012 by Roger Durbin
A lot of people either have private parties or go to one on New Year’s Eve. Either that or they hit the bars and gorge on the revelry of it all until the magic moment comes that starts the new year. All that is cool. But the City of Akron, through the Downtown Akron Partnership, […]
Article · December 21, 2012 by Roger Durbin
Let’s hear it for classy college theater. The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), an organization that is looking to “improve the quality of college theatre in the United States,” has selected the University of Akron Theater program’s fall production of “The Bacchae 2012” for its annual regional festival competition. The play was directed and adapted […]
Article · December 19, 2012 by Roger Durbin
Ever wonder how Georg Friedrich Handel’s Messiah would have sounded when it was first performed? I did, especially after listening to the 500-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” and thinking how majestic and overwhelming that would have been back in 1742. All that, of course, was thinking that every […]
Article · December 14, 2012 by Roger Durbin