- Shenandoah Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice | Sept. 18, 2007
- Bread and Puppet Theatre: The Divine Reality Comedy Circus | Oct. 20, 2007
- CANCELLED! Henry Rollins: Provoked - An Evening of Quintessentially American Opinionated Editorializing and Storytelling | March 27, 2008
- Russell Banks: Acclaimed author of Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter | April 7-10, 2008
- The One O'clock Lab Band: Jazz Band | April 12, 2008
- Asheville Lyric Opera:"The Barber of Seville" | April 22, 2008
Shenandoah Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice
Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2007 at 7:30 p.m.
Fine and Performing Arts Center
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“We think going to Shakespeare should be more like going to a rock concert than like eating your Brussels sprouts because they are supposed to be ‘good for you,'” said Jim Warren, artistic director for ASC. “This season is packed with the power and fun of love. It's got young lovers, middle-aged lovers, love-sick lords, ladies, and clowns.
Bread and Puppet Theatre: The Divine Reality Comedy Circus
Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007
Location TBA
Free performance following the Homecoming Game!
The Bread & Puppet Theater was founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City's Lower East Side. Besides rod- and hand-puppet shows for children, the concerns of the first productions were rents, rats, police, and other problems of that neighborhood. More complex theater pieces in which sculpture, music, dance and language were equal partners followed. The puppets grew bigger and bigger.
Annual presentations for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and Memorial Day often included children and adults from the community as participants. Many performances were done in the street. During the Vietnam War, Bread & Puppet staged block-long precessions involving hundreds of people.
CANCELLED! Henry Rollins: Provoked - An Evening of Quintessentially American Opinionated Editorializing and Storytelling
Thursday, March 27, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Fine and Performing Arts Center
For almost two decades, Rollins has been doing talking/stand-up shows internationally. He tours with his hard-rock group, Rollins Band, and is a Grammy Award winner for Best Spoken Word Performance. The former frontman of legendary Californian band Black Flag, he is the author of Smile, You're Traveling (Black Coffee Blues Part 3). Rollins has written articles for Spin and Details; published numerous books under his own imprint, 2-13-61 Publications; and done EPKs for Black Sabbath, Wayne Kramer and Jerry Lee Lewis. Presently Rollins is shooting Season 2 as host of The Henry Rollins Show on IFC.
The king of the spoken word show, he relishes going on stage and talking to college students. His observations never fail to touch a nerve with audiences.
He has said, "Those 20 kids that stick around after a show--that is my family. That's why I'm never nervous before I go on stage. That's why I talk for three hours. I wanna take 'em all home. They're the only people I need."
Russell Banks: Acclaimed author of Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter
In conjunction with the WCU Spring Literary Festival April 7-10, 2008
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Banks grew up in a working-class world that has played a major role in shaping his writing. Through a dozen novels and short story collections that have won him Guggenheim and NEA grants and a St. Lawrence Prize for fiction, Banks has made a life's work of charting the causes and effects of the terrible things “normal” men can and will do. He writes with an intensely focused empathy and a compassionate sense of humor that help to keep readers, if not his characters, afloat through the misadventures and outright tragedies in his books. A deep appreciation for his work has led the cities of Seattle and Rochester to each select his book The Sweet Hereafter as a book in common for their communities to read.
The One O'clock Lab Band: Jazz Band
In conjunction with the Arts Festival April 12, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Fine and Performing Arts Center
Ticket prices available at a later date
Celebrated as the top-ranked jazz ensemble of the University of North Texas' world-renowned College of Music, the band is a large jazz ensemble which includes five saxophones, five trumpets, five trombones, guitar, piano, bass, drum set, and sometimes added instrumentalists, vocalists, and/or guest soloists. The name comes from its rehearsal time–the band holds rehearsals Monday through Thursday from 1:00 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. The One O'clock Lab Band is directed by Neil Slater, Grammy-nominated composer and chair of jazz studies at UNT. The One O'clock Lab Band is universally acclaimed for superior individual musicianship and its tight unit performance.
Asheville Lyric Opera: "The Barber of Seville"
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 7:30 p.m.
Fine and Performing Arts Center
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The Asheville Lyric Opera Company is proud to present Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville). North Carolina native and mezzo-soprano Cheryse McLeod Lewis, formerly ALO's Carmen, returns to sing the role of Rosina. Joining Lewis is Greensboro Opera tenor Daniel Stein and Opera Theatre of St. Louis bass Daniel Webb who will be singing the beloved role of the father.