Arts & Literature

The Play’s the Thing

Published

2 years ago

October 13, 2022

Arlinda Smith Broady

GAC Alum Georgia Thomas in the role of Anastasia in “Anastasia” Spring 2022.

Local schools provide professional-level entertainment.

When folks in the southwest Gwinnett area are looking for entertainment choices beyond the bar scene or movie theaters, they probably don’t think about the budding talent growing in the local schools. If they consider a high school musical or even a one-act play from middle school students, they’re likely to be pleasantly surprised.

For years, local young thespians have been delivering professional quality performances at bargain prices.

The Shulers

It’s no wonder that many schools find themselves listed among the best and brightest in the country. Locally, the ArtsBridge Foundation conducts a competition for schools as a precursor to the International Shuler Awards®, or The Shulers, named for the Marietta-born stage and screen star Shuler Hensley. The April 20 show at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre features a live performance and awards event.

Live broadcasts of the ceremony have earned ArtsBridge Foundation and partner Georgia Public Broadcasting/GPB-TV the Southeast Emmy® Award in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 for special event coverage, indicative of the superb quality and high production value Georgia students bring at showtime.

Greater Atlanta Christian (GAC), a long-time participant in the event, will be competing in this cycle.

Left- Mrs. Thames and the cast of Anastasia doing their preshow warmups – Spring 2022. Middle- Sophomore Nick Nandlal-Smith in the role of Dmitry in Anastasia Spring 2022. Right- GAC High School’s production of Anastasia, which won the Shuler Spotlight Award. Additionally, Georgia Thomas’s performance in Anastasia won the Shuler Award for Leading Actress.

“While about half of the Shuler Awards competitors represent Metro Atlanta high schools, it’s exciting to see participating schools spanning all of Georgia, including five counties competing for the first time,” said Elizabeth Lenhart, director of arts education for ArtsBridge Foundation.

“While many aspects… uphold long-standing traditions, format updates implemented last year also enable schools, volunteer adjudicators and ArtsBridge Foundation’s team to share a fun and fair competition celebrating the state’s best in musical theater.”

In the 2022 competition, GAC won the Spotlight Award at The Shulers for the ensemble’s performance of “Stay I Pray You” from the musical “Anastasia.” Additionally, student Georgia Thomas won Best Performance by a Leading Actress for her portrayal of the title character.
Since 2009, the Shuler Awards has engaged over 60,000 students from 142 schools and 38 counties/school systems.

The main objectives of the Shuler Awards are to increase awareness, advocacy and support for Georgia’s arts education programs, to develop and foster growing talent by providing learning and performance opportunities and to cultivate and nurture productive relationships among Georgia’s promising thespians and educators, according to information provided by the nonprofit organization.

The Shuler Awards leading actress and actor winners will travel to New York City as Georgia’s entrants for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards program, named The Jimmy Awards. They will participate in the awards show at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway during summer 2023, with merit scholarships and professional opportunities up for grabs, organized by Broadway League.

Greater Atlanta Christian

With 17 years at GAC, Director of Fine Arts Regan Burnett knows first-hand all the sweat and tears that go into pulling off these award-winning productions. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was promoted to her current role.

“For the last two years, you could say that I have helped our performing and visual arts communities navigate the very unpredictable waters of and turbulent waters of COVID,” she said. “We were able to, with our facilities and resources, put on our performances, which was really important to our community. And that was not an easy thing to do.”

The school offered more performances and followed CDC guidelines of social distancing, masking and disinfecting surfaces. The audiences were much smaller — consisting mainly of other students, staff and family — but as the adage says, “The show must go on!”

“We were just very fortunate, and we were very grateful,” said Burnett. “As a performer, you have to be very flexible. You have to have a plan, have a lot of discipline, be very structured, but you also have to learn resilience and flexibility.”

The opportunity to keep as much normalcy as possible was a positive element for the school year. “It gave me hope and that’s what I needed personally. I got the support from our administration to spend my time and my energy and my resources into making sure that our students carry on as best we could, as faithfully as we could,” she said.

While a lot of people may not see the value in extracurricular education, Burnett said she’s grateful that the GAC administration believes that what she and her department do is important.

“Colleagues and people that I report to may not be performers and they may not be artists, but they have an appreciation for it, and they support it,” she said. “So, we’re very blessed to have that.”

Norcross High School

Gina Parrish, theater director at Norcross High School (NHS) has been in that position for 31 years. “We tried to participate in the Schulers, but they only allowed 25 schools in, and it was first come first served,” she explained. “We missed getting in [this time].”

But local theater lovers can still enjoy the NHS entry to the GHSA Region One-Act Play Competition, Laundry and Bourbon, a delightful comedy about three housewives in the 1970s in a small town in Texas.

In late February, NHS will be performing a hilarious farce called The Play That Goes Wrong, and in April, the school will be doing The Addams Family. For information, visit nhs-drama.com.

“We always have great costumes and wonderful high school actors,” said Parrish. “It should be a wonderful season of great shows with lots of color!”

Upcoming shows

Community members are encouraged to attend GAC and other local school productions. Here are a few to consider.

Pirates in Wonderland is the creative naming for two plays that are being presented as a combo ticket for two dates. One starts at 7 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m. on October 6 and October 19.

Alice in Wonderland is a one-act play performed by the school’s elite VISIONS ensemble. “How I Became a Pirate” is another one act play by the younger high school students. Both are going into competition.

Wesleyan Middle School Recent Play

The program has won 22 state championships (Georgia High School Association and Georgia Theatre Conferences) and GAC student actors have repeatedly won the highly respected Shuler Hensley Awards for High School Musical Theatre.

The Sara D. Williams Fine Arts Center holds the state-of-the art Clifton Jones Theatre, which seats an audience of 400. Tickets are at eventbrite.com/o/greater-atlanta-christian-school-6783130853.

The middle school theater will present the one-act play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s famous story of fairies and Athenian youth on Wednesday, Oct. 12. The fairies of the wood attempt to reconcile an argument between their king and queen, the working men of Athens rehearse a play of their own invention to be performed at the Duke’s wedding celebration, and the youth of Athens navigate the perils of falling under love’s spell.

The play will be performed at the Georgia Theatre Conference competition in Kingsland, Ga. on October 15.

Wesleyan’s High School will present The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on Friday, Oct. 21 and Saturday, Oct. 22. Two performances, at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. each day, will be held at Wesleyan School on the green next to Davidson Natatorium.

Wesleyan’s Middle School’s production of James and the Giant Peach.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is set in Tarrytown in 1790, and tells the tale of Ichabod Crane, the love-struck schoolteacher who must decide if he believes the story of the town’s Headless Horseman to be true or just a figment of his imagination.

As Ichabod faces his fears and superstitions, all manner of characters jump in to tell the story, share a few laughs and put the town newcomer, Ichabod himself, to the test. Ultimately, all of the characters are challenged to decide if fear will rule their lives or if faith in God’s promised providence will triumph.

In this adaptation of America’s first ghost story, the audience will be immersed in the experience in an outdoor setting on the Wesleyan Campus. For details and reservations, visit wesleyanschool.org.

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Arlinda Smith Broady

Arlinda Smith Broady is part of the Boomerang Generation of Blacks that moved back to the South after their ancestors moved North. With approximately three decades of journalism experience (she doesn't look it), she's worked in tiny, minority-based newsrooms to major metropolitans. At every endeavor she brings professionalism, passion, pluck, and the desire to spread the news to the people.

Around Atlanta

The High Museum to Showcase “Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind”

Published

6 days ago

December 12, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

Oil on paper artwork by Terry Winters. A large red circle with smaller blue circles on top of it and gold/yellow accents. All of it on a dark brown background.

The special exhibition of the Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will run January 17 through May 25, 2025

In the mid-1970s, artist and Georgia State University professor Medford Johnston, along with his wife and collaborator Loraine, began collecting works by artists who were in the vanguard of contemporary art. Today, they hold one of the finest collections of postwar American drawings and related objects of its kind, now numbering more than 85 works.

In 2025, the High Museum of Art will present Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection, featuring their collected works, which is a promised gift to the museum. Featuring artists such as Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden, Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha, Al Taylor, Anne Truitt, Stanley Whitney and Terry Winters, among others, the exhibition will demonstrate how establishing the parameters of an art collection requires infinite patience, focus, discipline and a keen eye.

“The Johnstons have been friends of the High for a very long time. They’ve also built an impressive collection featuring works by many of the 20th century’s most significant abstract artists,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We are honored that they have promised to leave their collection to the Museum where it will be preserved for future generations — and we are delighted that they are sharing it with our audiences now, hopefully inspiring the next generation of art collectors and supporters.”

A curated collection

The Johnstons’ story is a testament to, in the words of the High’s Wieland Family Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Michael Rooks, “knowing the difference between what is right and what is almost right” when building a collection.

Although the Johnstons acquired several paintings and objects when they first began collecting in 1972, they quickly narrowed their focus to drawing, primarily by artists working on the frontlines of abstraction in the mid-1960s during a time of great innovation and experimentation.

Ink drawing by Anne Truitt, rectangular lines and shapes made with black ink on off-white background — Anne Truitt (American, born 1921), *Ink Drawing ’59 [11]*, 1959, ink on paper, The Johnston Collection. © Estate of Anne Truitt / The Bridgeman Art Library / Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

Rooks added, “Med and Loraine’s collection struck me at once by its single-minded focus on a specific moment in time, which was essentially the time of their contemporaries. The artists in their collection are like close friends to the Johnstons — in fact many are or were. What is equally astonishing about the collection is the Johnstons’ dogged pursuit of quality. Their in-depth knowledge of each artist’s practice combined with their understanding of specific qualities to look for — or more appropriately, to hold out for — will be a revelation to emerging collectors.”

The Johnstons have built their collection with the High in mind as the benefactor of their passion and discernment. For them, their collection “is a labor of love, pursued over more than 50 years, and we are delighted to be able to help the High Museum document and celebrate these important artists working during the same decades as our lives.”

About the exhibit

Thinking Eye, Seeing Mind: The Medford and Loraine Johnston Collection will be presented in the Special Exhibition Galleries on the second level of the High’s Stent Family Wing.

The exhibit is organized by the High Museum of Art and made possible through the generosity of sponsors:

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor Delta Air Lines, Inc.
Premier Exhibition Series Supporters Mr. Joseph H. Boland, Jr., The Fay S. and W. Barrett Howell Family Foundation, Harry Norman Realtors and wish Foundation
Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters Robin and Hilton Howell
Ambassador Exhibition Series Supporters Loomis Charitable Foundation and Mrs. Harriet H. Warren
Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters Farideh and Al Azadi, Mary and Neil Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones, Megan and Garrett Langley, Margot and Danny McCaul, Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller and Belinda Stanley-Majors and Dwayne Majors.

Support has also been provided by the Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund and USI Insurance Services.

About the High Museum of Art

Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs.

Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 19,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper.

The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process.

For more information about the High or to purchase tickets, visit high.org.

Top image: (from the collection) Terry Winters (American, born 1949), Orb, 2020, oil on paper, The Johnston Collection. © Terry Winters, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York.

Around Atlanta

City Springs Theatre Company Presents the Hit Musical Jersey Boys

Published

6 months ago

July 3, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

The megahit musical Jersey Boys is making its regional premiere with the City Springs Theatre Company in a five-week run.

The megahit musical Jersey Boys makes its regional premiere in City Springs Theatre Company’s (CSTC) first-ever, five-week run at the Byers Theatre in Sandy Springs.

Directed by Atlanta’s-own Shane DeLancey, and choreographed by Meg Gillentine, Jersey Boys tells the rags-to-riches story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. The show details their remarkable journey from the streets to the top of the charts, to their 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Leading the cast of Jersey Boys is Haden Rider as Frankie Valli. Rider is a City Springs Theatre Company veteran, with recent roles in both Legally Blonde (Emmett) and Fiddler on the Roof (Perchik).

Presented by Resurgens Spine Center, Jersey Boys runs from July 12 through August 11, and shines a special spotlight on home-grown talent, as the show’s four leading men are all Atlanta-area residents.

With phenomenal music, memorable characters and great storytelling, Jersey Boys follows the fascinating evolution of four blue-collar kids who became one of the greatest successes in pop-music history.

“City Springs Theatre Company is very proud to be the first in the southeast region to present Jersey Boys,” said CSTC Artistic Director and Tony Award-winner Shuler Hensley. “Our audiences have been asking for this particular show since we opened. The production is truly stacked with talent onstage and off, and we’re pulling out all the stops to bring audiences an experience that will rival any previous version of the show.”

Jersey Boys premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2005, prior to its 13-year Broadway run, from 2005 to 2017. There have been productions of the show in Las Vegas, UK/Ireland, Toronto, Melbourne, Singapore, South Africa, the Netherlands, Japan, Dubai and China.

Jersey Boys features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, with music by Bob Gaudio, and lyrics by Bob Crewe.

Individual tickets to see Jersey Boys are on sale now ($42 – $108), with discounts for seniors, students, groups and active and retired military personnel.

CSTC’s Box Office is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Call 404-477-4365 or visit CitySpringsTheatre.com for more information.

This production contains adult language and is recommended for mature audiences.

Performance schedule:

Arts & Literature

Local Students Show Off Their Artistic Creations

Published

7 months ago

June 2, 2024

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

Courtney Escorza, Colleen Nikopour, Laura Hwang, Jennifer Jackson, Norcross. Laura ELizabeth Martin, Payton Hirschmann, Paul Duke HS

From May 11 through May 18, the Norcross Gallery & Studios kicked off a fantastic exhibition, Reflections at Rectory, which showcased the works of 36 rising stars: AP and IB art students from our local high schools.

The opening reception celebrated their creativity and dedication. Gallery director Anne Hall presented a dozen awards generously sponsored by the community, a testament to the local support for these young artists.

One prestigious award, the Terri Enfield Memorial Award, holds special significance.

Established by Terri’s daughters, it recognizes not just artistic excellence, but also leadership, work ethic and the spirit of collaboration. Last year’s winner, Aidan Ventimiglia, even played a part in selecting this year’s recipient Jasmine Rodriguez.