SUNDAY, 2/5: Tales from the Andes Story Theater
February 3, 2012 by Falls Church Times Staff · Leave a Comment
Creative Cauldron performing artists will join forces with Raymi musicians for an afternoon of storytelling, folktales from the Andes in South America, puppets, choreography and music. An interactive event for the whole family on Sunday, February 5 at 2 pm. Part of the Passport to the World Festival presented by Creative Cauldron.
Tickets are $10. Creative Cauldron is located at 410 S. Maple Avenue in the Pearson Square building. Order in advance at www.creativecauldron.org or by calling 571-239-5288
“Nevermore” Open at ArtSpace Falls Church
October 9, 2011 by Special to the Falls Church Times · 2 Comments
SPECIAL TO THE FALLS CHURCH TIMES
October 9, 2011
Creative Cauldron has launched its 2011-2012 season with the critically acclaimed musical Nevermore that uses Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry and short stories as its base to tell the story of Poe’s obsessions with the women in his life.
Headlining the Nevermore cast is equity actor Sean Thompson in the role of Edgar Allan Poe. Thompson has appeared regionally in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Philadelphia’s Mauckingbird Theatre Company; at Signature Theatre as Artie in Sunset Boulevard and Charles in And the Curtain Rises; and as Alex in The Little Dog Laughed at Philadelphia’s Flashpoint Theatre Company. The women in Poe’s life are played by Priscilla Cuellar, Dani Danger Stoller, Mary Payne Omohondro, Katie Culligan and Karissa Swanigan-Upchurch.
Directed by Matt Connor, who also composed the music, the Creative Cauldron production of Nevermore features a live orchestra.
The production runs weekends through October 30 at ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 S. Maple Avenue. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2 pm and Sundays at 4 pm. Tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for seniors/students. Seating is limited. Tickets can be reserved on-line at www.creativecauldron.org or by calling 571-239-5288.
“Nevermore” Opens Creative Cauldron’s Season
October 2, 2011 by Special to the Falls Church Times · Leave a Comment
SPECIAL to the FALLS CHURCH TIMES
On Friday, October 7, the anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death, Creative Cauldron will launch its 10th anniversary season with the critically acclaimed musical Nevermore. This imaginative musical uses Poe’s poetry and short stories as its base and his shifting obsession with the women in his life as its catalyst.
The production will run weekends through October 30 at ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 S. Maple Avenue. Performances are Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 4:00 pm. Tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for seniors/students. Seating is limited so advance purchase is encouraged. Tickets for Nevermore can be reserved on-line at www.creativecauldron.org or by calling 571-239-5288.
Nevermore premiered at Signature Theatre in 2006, winning praise from The Washington Post for its “romantic music, ablaze with feeling.” Matt Conner, who will direct Nevermore, also composed the music, adapting lyrics from the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Grace Barnes wrote the book.
Guiding a professional cast through what Conner describes as a work about “love, death, and acceptance of one’s self,” he adds “while Poe has more often than not been depicted as a dark, depressed monster, in this work you will see him in all his vulnerability and humanity. You will be transported back to a time when poetry and letters were supremely valued… when one simple word held immense power and meaning.”
The Nevermore cast features equity actor Sean Thompson in the role of Edgar Allan Poe. Thompson has appeared locally at Signature Theatre as Artie in Sunset Boulevard and Charles in And the Curtain Rises. His other regional theater credits include Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Philadelphia’s Mauckingbird Theatre Company; the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Curly in Oklahoma! and Paul in Barefoot in the Park at Missouri’s Maples Repertory Theatre; Alex in The Little Dog Laughed at Philadelphia’s Flashpoint Theatre Company; and Bill Sykes in Oliver! at MediaTheatre.
The women in Poe’s Life will be played by Priscilla Cuellar (Mother), Dani Danger Stoller (the Whore), Mary Payne Omohondro (Muddy), Katie Culligan (Virginia) and Karissa Swanigan- Upchurch (Elmira).
Conner has more than 15 years of experience working as a musical director, performer and teaching artist in the DC metropolitan area. But it was Nevermore that launched his career as a musical theater composer. In 2008, he was one of six composers to receive Signature’s American Musical Voices: The Next Generation award funded by the Shen Family Foundation.Conner’s newest composition The Hollow, an adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, opened Signature’s 2011-2012 season.
The Nevermore production team includes Creative Cauldron Producing Director Laura Connors Hull, Music Director Amy Massey, Assistant Director Danny Tippett, Scenic Designer Margie Jervis, Lighting Designer Paul Spiegelblatt, and Wig Design by Jonathan Jackson.
SATURDAY 8/27: TV Production Workshop
July 27, 2011 by (see byline) · Leave a Comment
Falls Church City Television will hold a Field Production Workshop Saturday, Aug. 27, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the FCC-TV Studio at George Mason High School, 7124 Leesburg Pike, entrance off Haycock Road.
The workshop is an opportunity to obtain the skills necessary for producing programming for FCC-TV. It will feature a basic overview of television production in remote locations. Subjects include: lighting in the field; audio; field camera operation; on-camera reporting; storytelling; and tripod use.
Space is limited but additional workshops may be scheduled if there is enough interest.
The registration fee for the workshop is $50 for FCC-TV members and $60 for non-members, payable in cash or checks made out to FCCAC (Falls Church Cable Access Corporation). Fees will be due at the time of registration. Space in the workshop cannot be held until fees have been paid.
For more information contact Michael Palmrose, FCC-TV Supervisor, palmrosem@fccps.org or 703-248-5692.
FRIDAY 9/30: FCC-TV Student Photo & Video Contest
July 16, 2011 by Steven Valley · Leave a Comment
Students Invited to Enter Falls Church Community TV Photo and Video Contest Winners to Receive the Bob Morrison Prize
What better way for students to spend summer break than to tap into their creative talent and vie for a cash prize? Students with a still or video camera can do just that and compete for one of two, $250 Bob Morrison Prizes. This annual contest was created by the TV station’s Cable Access Board in memory of longtime board member Bob Morrison.
“Bob was a wonderful talent and a Falls Church icon,” said Cable Access Board President Barbara Cram. “He never left home without a camera, and as a result, he left us a treasure trove of golden memories. Through this contest, we hope to encourage young artists, as Bob often did, to take their best shot and capture the spirit of The Little City.”
The contest is open to students in grades K-12 (during the 2010-2011 school year) who live or attend school in Falls Church City. Students may submit photographs or videos illustrating the theme of “Falls Church City – My Hometown.” Entries will be judged on theme, quality and creativity by a three-person judging panel. The first place winner in each category will be awarded the $250 cash prize during the Falls Church Cable Access Corporation Annual Meeting in October.
Entry requirements can be found on the Falls Church City Television web site, www.fcctv.net. All entries must be received by 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 30. For more information call Mike Palmrose, 703-248-5692.
FRIDAY 6/10: Students Free at “Portraits in Black & White” Show
June 9, 2011 by Falls Church Times Staff · Leave a Comment
Special to the Falls Church Times
On Friday, June 10, students get in free to the 7:30 pm performance of “Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black and White“ at ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 S. Maple Avenue in the Pearson Square building. This is a special performance for Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School students, faculty, staff and their families. Diener & Associates will cover the price of tickets for students from MEHMS and GMHS. Also, $5 from every adult ticket sold to the Friday night show will be donated to the MEHMS PTA. Everyone is welcome to attend the benefit performance.
This is the last weekend of performances of “Portraits in Black & White,” a 90-minute original work of theater “ that tells the stories of Falls Church’s earliest settlers including educator Mary Ellen Henderson, the Brown family, Joseph Tinner and E.B. Henderson. Read more
Students Get Free Tickets to Show
June 7, 2011 by Falls Church Times Staff · Leave a Comment
By Falls Church Times Staff
The final weekend of performances of Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black and White is this Thursday through Sunday, June 9 – 12 at ArtSpace Falls Church. The Friday, June 10 at 7:30 pm show is a special performance for Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School students, faculty, staff and their families. Through a generous donation from Diener & Associates, students can attend FREE on Friday and Creative Cauldron will donate $5 from every adult ticket to the MEHMS PTA. You need not be associated with MEHMS to attend Friday’s performance. Everyone is welcome.
MEHMS students get in FREE to the Friday, June 10 performance of "Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black & White" through a donation from Diener & Associates. The 90-minute play continues Thursday through Sunday at ArtSpace, 410 S. Maple Avenue.
Through a series of monologues, ensemble scenes and music, Portraits in Black and White engagingly tells the history of early local civil rights activists E.B. Henderson and Joseph Tinner and educator Mary Ellen Henderson.
Pay-What-You-Can Preview of “Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black and White”
June 1, 2011 by Falls Church Times Staff · Leave a Comment
By Falls Church Times Staff
Preview performances of Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black and White will be Thursday and Friday, June 2 and 3 at 7:30 pm and Saturday, June 4 at 2 pm at ArtSpace Falls Church. The opening night performance is Saturday, June 4 at 7:30 pm.
Creative Cauldron is restaging this original work of theater. The play runs Thursday through Sunday, June 2 - 5 and June 9 - 12 at ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 S. Maple Avenue. Thursday night performances are "Pay What You Can."
Creative Cauldron, in collaboration with the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, is remounting this original work of theater based on the stories of local African American civil rights heroes. Developed through funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Arts Council of Fairfax County, the show played to standing ovations when it premiered last season.
Additional performances of Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black and White are Sunday, June 5 at 2 and 6 pm, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, June 9, 10 and 11 at 7:30 pm, Saturday, June 11 at 2 pm and Sunday, June 11 at 2 and 6 pm. The Thursday evening performances are “Pay What You Can.” Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. Reserve tickets at www.creativecauldron.org or call 571-239-5288.
Through a series of monologues, scenes and blues-inspired music, the production tracks the journey of resistance and resilience that began before the Civil War and continued well into the late 20th Century. Hull said “the play explores a history that doesn’t appear in official textbooks and helps us come to better understand the experience of being an African American in the early days of a growing and changing Virginia community.” Some people will recognize the names of the people whose stories are told in Tinner Hill: Portraits in Black and White: E.B. Henderson, Joseph Tinner and Mary Ellen Henderson.
Tinner Hill was named for Charles and Mary Tinner, an African American couple who bought land there in the 1800s. Their son, Joseph Tinner, organized the Colored Citizens Protective League in 1915 in response to a local ordinance that divided Falls Church into segregated black and white communities. Tinner joined forces with local educator and civil rights leader E.B. Henderson to resist the measure. Later, Falls Church became the first rural chapter of the NAACP, paving the way for other chapters across the South.
Creative Cauldron at ArtSpace is located at 410 S. Maple Avenue in the Pearson Square building. There is free parking during performances in the garages at both 410 and 400 S. Maple Avenue.
