After a year of careful recalibration of its business model that led to a tightened 2013 schedule, Georgia Shakespeare plans to expand its offerings in 2014.
The just-announced season will feature five all-new productions.
“We’ve heard a great deal of feedback from our supporters who have made it clear that they want more theater from us and more Shakespeare from us,” producing artistic director Richard Garner said in a statement. “We are rebuilding in a smart, intelligent way that will make us truly sustainable. … We are ready to move forward with our freshest, boldest work yet.”
The ‘14 productions include (final dates still to be determined):
- June: Shakespeare's comedy "As You Like It."
- July: "One Man, Two Guvnors," Richard Bean's adaption of "Servant of Two Masters," a 2011 hit on London's West End that received seven Tony nominations after its Broadway transfer in 2012.
- July: "The Frog Prince" (family show), Atlanta playwright Melody Long's adaption of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
- October: "Henry V," Shakespeare's original "band of brothers" history play.
- December: "A Holiday Panto," done in the spirit of the traditional English holiday "pantomime." It will be developed with one of Georgia Shakespeare's university partners announced earlier this year.
A few notes about the what Georgia Shakespeare is planning:
- The company will stage "As You Like It" as its annual Shakespeare in the Park production in Piedmont Park but then will for the first time move a park show to its regular home at the Conant Center on the Oglethorpe University campus. Garner explained that the troupe determined that its audiences for the different sites are different and that the quick transfer will offer it the chance to reach both.
Georgia Shakespeare is also in talks with potential partners to tour the Shakespeare in the Park production beyond Atlanta, possibly as soon as ‘14.
- Though its first two plays will share a cast, and though "One Man, Two Guvnors" and "The Frog Prince" may have some overlapping dates on the schedule, Georgia Shakespeare does not plan to return to its long-time practice of presenting in "rep" (rotating its shows on a nightly basis).
“We believe that simplifying our approach to summer will make it much easier for our audiences to see our shows,” Garner said.
- The company also announced that it had raised $75,000 during the "Meta Challenge" during the four-week run of "Metamorphoses" this summer, well exceeding the goal to achieve a $50,000 match from two anonymous donors.
- Finally, the 28-year-old troupe, clearly stabilizing after its "Save Georgia Shakespeare" campaign that surpassed its $500,000 goal in early 2012, said it projects to present as much or more theater in 2015 than it has in any year in its history.
Information: 404-504-1473, www.gashakespeare.org.
VISUAL ART
Alabama female artists get northeast Georgia showcase
Birmingham painter Carrie Hill died more than a half-century ago, while Dothan painter Dale Kennington is still going strong in her late 70s. But the subjects of adjoining exhibits at the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art, at Piedmont College in Demorest, have more in common than merely Alabama roots.
“I am intrigued by both their work because they are both fiercely independent, both made a living from their work and they are collected by museums,” museum director Daniel White said.
Landscape artist Hill, who died in 1957, studied plein air painting on Martha’s Vineyard and impressionism in Provincetown on Cape Cod, later painting at sites across Europe with a group led by American impressionist George Elmer Browne. She’s also known for murals she created in Birmingham during the Depression, the only Alabama female artist commissioned by the Public Works Administration.
“Dale Kennington: Power of the Moment” showcases the Dothan painter as a contemporary realist comfortable working in large scale. For instance, two paintings hanging side by side at Mason-Scharfenstein, “Do You Know Your Neighbors” (a KKK rally scene) and “The Debutantes” (a grouping of African-American young society women), are 5-feet-by-7-feet and 5-feet-by-6-feet, respectively.
A reception will be held 6-8 p.m. Aug. 22, featuring remarks by Kennington and a relative of Hill, Dr. Julius Linn of Birmingham. Graham C. Boettcher, the Birmingham Museum of Art’s American art curator, will lecture as well.
The Piedmont museum opened in downtown Demorest, roughly 80 miles northeast of Atlanta, in 2011, created from two renovated 1916 brick buildings.
Gallery hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays. Free. 567 Georgia St., Demorest. 706-778-8500, ext. 1011, www.piedmont.edu/fa/index.php/gallery-schedule.
Artist’s inspirational print benefits cancer center
Atlanta photographer-graphic designer Kate Papania is donating half the proceeds from sales of her new typographical print “Seek Balance” on Etsy to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The inspirational text was excerpted from the autobiography “I’m Not Finished” by Sarah Merdian, a family friend of Papania, who died of cancer in 2008.
In multicolored text, the prints say: “Seek balance. Eat to live. Realize that you are worth your own time. Laugh more. Pray for others. Pray for yourself. Stay in touch. Choose. Stretch your body and your mind. Accept yourself. Hold on. Let go.”
The 11-inch-by-14-inch print sells for $30 via Papania's store (SpeakEasyQuoteArt) at etsy.com.
HONORS
Fox Theatre exec selected as Woman of Influence
The trade publication Venues Today has selected Fox Theatre vice president and general manager Adina Erwin as a 2013 Woman of Influence. The magazine called Erwin "a positive change agent" in guiding the 1929 theater in implementing new ticketing, marketing and a customer relationship management (CRM) system. More at www.venuestoday.com.
Milton performing arts school snags national honor
Milton's RISPA took the prize for America's best performing arts school, and many other awards by young artists of various ages, at the recent Access Broadway Nationals (www.accessbroadway.com) in Hershey, Pa. More on RISPA: 678-620-3500, www.rispa.net.
