Art Station in historic Stone Mountain Village has announced its 2015-16 season:
Sept. 23-27: "One-Man Star Wars Trilogy," in which Canadian actor Charles Ross plays countless characters, sings the music, flies the ships, fights the battles and condenses the trilogy plots into 60 minutes.
Dec. 16-20: "A One-Man Christmas Carol," featuring Bill Oberst Jr., popular with Art Station audiences for his one-man Lewis Grizzard show, with musicians Patrick Hutchison and Lisa Paige.
Jan. 13-17, 2016: "Tonight: Mark Twain!" performed by Oberst, who has portrayed the humorist more than 1,500 times.
March 2-6, 2016: "From My Grandmother's Grandmother Unto Me," by Charlotte and Clarinda Ross, developed and directed by David Thomas, Art Station president and artistic director. Clarinda Ross stars in this 30th anniversary time-trip through the Appalachians fueled by the power of family and oral tradition.
March 31-April 3, 2016: "Jesus of Nazareth" and "The Book of Genesis," a faith-filled double bill performed by Oberst.
April 28-May 15, 2016: "Me and Jezebel," by Elizabeth L. Fuller, based on a true story of a New England family that had Bette Davis as a house guest for a more extended period than they intended.
July 14–31, 2016: "Grits: The Musical! Girls Raised in the South," based on Deborah Ford's book "Grits Friends Are Forevah."
Season packages and single tickets available. 5384 Manor Drive, Stone Mountain Village. 770-469-1105, www.artstation.org.
VISUAL ART
Fahamu Pecou art coming to MARTA
WonderRoot, the social change-oriented Reynoldstown arts and service nonprofit, has revealed more details about "En Route," a public art project it will undertake with a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts' Our Town program. It and four other creative placemaking grants to metro Atlanta groups totaling $420,000 were reported last week in the AJC.
Atlanta artist Fahamu Pecou, shown in the High Museum of Art’s “Imagining New Worlds” exhibit this spring, has been selected to create murals or installations at four MARTA stations. The first will be at King Memorial, followed by Oakland City, Hamilton E. Holmes and a station to be named. The time frame has not been determined.
The project is in partnership with the TransFormation Alliance, a collaboration among community advocates, policy experts, non-profit and for-profit developers, transit providers and government agencies.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Atlanta Symphony Associates tunes up
The Woodruff Arts Center announced earlier this month that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra finished the 2014-15 season with a surplus, reversing a slide of 11 consecutive years of deficits. And it also revealed news with perhaps even longer-term implications: that $13.3 million has been raised in the ASO’s Musicians’ Endowment Campaign toward its $25 million goal.
As part of the four-year collective bargaining agreement, whose negotiations delayed the start of the 2014-15 season by nine weeks and included a musicians lockout, the Woodruff must raise the number of players from 77 to 88 before year four. The endowment news suggests the process is moving along, with the ASO already having posted audition notices for three positions. (Catch up at artscultureblog.ajc.com.)
In addition to its large board of directors chaired by D. Kirk Jamieson, the ASO also is helped by support in many forms from the Atlanta Symphony Associates (ASA), the ASO's all-volunteer guild in its 66th year.
Last season, the ASA’s signature fundraiser, the annual Decorators’ Show House & Gardens, netted nearly $250,000. Associates also volunteered at 28 children’s concerts and led 10 “instrument petting zoos” that reached nearly 5,000 metro Atlanta children.
The ASA has announced its board of directors for the 2015-‘16 season: Camille Kesler, in her second year as president; Belinda Massafra and Leslie Petter, advisers; Sabine Sugarman, secretary; Glee Lamb, treasurer; Sylvia Davidson, nominating chair; Bunny Davidson, membership vice president; Melissa Hudson, communications and development vice president; Jonathan Brown and Josh Cochran, Bravo Unit chairs; Martha and John Head, Concerto Unit chairs; Joan Abernathy, Encore Unit chair; Corrie Johnson and Joanne Chesler Gross, Ensemble Unit chairs.
The ASA is seeking new members: email Bunny Davidson at davidsonb7@comcast.net or atlantasymphonyassociates@gmail.com.
THEATER
Kenny Leon to advise Tony-organizer group
Kenny Leon, artistic director of True Colors Theatre Company, has been appointed to the American Theatre Wing’s Advisory Committee. Leon joins a new group of advisers including actress Stockard Channing, People and Entertainment Weekly editor Jess Cagle and author and former Facebook executive Randi Zuckerberg.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2017, the New York-based American Theatre Wing, best known for orchestrating the Tony Awards, “is dedicated to preserving the past, celebrating the present and fostering the future of American theatre nationwide,” according to its website.
In Atlanta, Leon's True Colors is staging "Chasin' Dem Blues" at Southwest Arts Center through Aug. 9. 1-877-725-8849, truecolorstheatre.org.
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