Charlotte Repertory Theatre continues to stun with the opener of their 26th season -- one of the great American plays of the 20th century, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. The play will run through September 29 at Booth Playhouse in the Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $24-$31.50. For more information or a complete showtime schedule call 704-372-1000 or visit online at www.charlotterep.org.
North Carolina Dance Theatre 2 (NCDT 2) will give free lunchtime performances today from 12:15-12:45pm in the Duke Power Theatre of Spirit Square. Dance Break gives viewers a chance to experience quality dance performances up close in a casual atmosphere. Box lunches from Something Classic will be available. For more information call 704-372-0101.SEPTEMBER
19 - THURSDAYThe Off-Tryon Theatre Company opens their season tonight with Bent, a groundbreaking play by Martin Sherman which addresses the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany. The show runs today through Saturday and September 26-28 at 8pm in the Off-Tryon Theatre. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. For more information call 704-375-2826 or visit online at www.offtryon.org.
Show Boat, part of Theatre Charlotte's 75th Performance Season, will be performed at their facility, 501 Queens Road, today through Sunday and September 26-29. Showtimes are Thursday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2:30pm. Tickets range from $15-$20. For more information call 704-334-9128 or visit online at www.theatrecharlotte.org.
The Warehouse Theatre, located in The Hart-Witzen Gallery and composed of Victory Pictures, The Carolina Shakespeare Company, and The Farm Theatre, will present their season opener Macbeth starting tonight at 8pm. The show will run through Saturday. Tickets are $15. For more information call 704-455-8542 or visit online at www.hartwitzengallery.com.
NC Dance Theatre will present their Fall Trilogy September 19-21 at 8pm in Belk Theater at the Performing Arts Center. The trilogy will feature the world premiere of Constructing Juliet by Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Mark Gooden, as well as the American premiere of Nicolo Fonte's Spoken In Red. The third and final piece in the trilogy is master choreographer George Balanchine's Four Temperaments. Tickets range from $10-$55. For more information call 704-372-1000 or visit online at www.ncdance.org.
The Brown Bag Lunch Series at Founder's Hall continues this afternoon with Carolina Pro Musica, Charlotte's early music ensemble, performing Baroque favorites. The performance runs from 11:30am-1:30pm and is free. For more information call 704-332-1800.
The Southern Women's Show, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, begins today and runs through Sunday at the Charlotte Merchandise Mart. Featured are all sorts of personal improvement items, food, Olympic Gold Medal Winner Brook Bennett (Sunday), home and garden displays and demonstrations, and more. Hours are 10am-8pm today through Saturday, and 10am-5pm on Sunday. Admission is $7 for adults, $4 for youths 6-12, and free for those under six years of age. For more information, log on to www.southernwomensshow.com, or call 704-376-6594.
Always one of the best people-watching events of the year, the Festival In The Park, a Charlotte tradition for some 38 years, once again returns to Freedom Park, beginning at 6pm today. The free event runs until 10pm tonight, 12noon-10pm on Friday, 10am-10pm on Saturday, and 10am-6pm on Sunday. Featured are the usual array of vendors, arts and crafts, music, children's activities. For more information, call 704-338-1060, or log on to www.festivalinthepark.org.SEPTEMBER
20 - FRIDAY
Everybody will be Kung-Fu Fighting as Tiny Ninja Theatre presents a very unique performance of Shakespeare's classic, MacBeth. The story will be acted out by inch-high plastic ninjas and assorted dime-store figures. It's just like all those great stories kids put together with G.I. Joes and He-Man all those years ago, but with a snooty classic twist. The shows will be presented at Off-Tryon Theatre today through Sunday and September 27-29. Seating is limited to 25 people per performance, so make your reservations early. Showtimes are 5:30pm and 11pm on Friday, 2pm, 5:30pm and 11pm on Saturday, and 12pm, 3pm and 6pm on Sunday. Tickets are $15. For more information call 704-375-2826.
Big facial mole-sportin' crooner Enrique Iglesias, who, at press time, was dating Anna Kournikova, appears tonight at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at 7:30pm, along with Paulina Rubio and Soluna. Tickets are $30.50 and $50.50, available by calling 704-522-6500.
The Afro-American Cultural Center presents the Friday Night Blues Experience tonight at 8pm at Festival In The Park, featuring acts such as Etta Baker and Pervis Lee. For more information, call 704-374-1565.SEPTEMBER
21- SATURDAYCarolina Pro Music, Charlotte's early music ensemble, celebrates with their 25th Anniversary Concert tonight at 8:15pm at St. Martin's Episcopal Church. Tickets range from $6-$15. For more information call 7 04-334-3468.
The Hurricane Hugo Juggling Festival Family Vaudeville Extravaganza will take place tonight at 7:30pm in the Duke Family Performance Hall on the campus of Davidson College. As you might surmise, the event features juggling and unicycle riding and all sorts of other neat stuff. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 3-12, and free for the really wee young'uns. For more information, call 704-892-1296.
The Neighborhood Theatre will once again host the Spread Your Wings concert for breast cancer research, beginning today at 6:30pm. A $12 ticket (fully tax-deductible) gets you the following acts: The Silos, the Ware River Club, Stacey Earle and Mark Stuart, Duane Jarvis, Scott Miller, and Mt. Holly's own David Childers. Tickets are available at the door, or by calling 704-358-9298. See our story on Stacey Earle in this issue.
SEPTEMBER
22 - SUNDAY
The Grey Goose concert tour comes to Club 2000 tonight. The show, which begins at 8pm, features Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, 8Ball and MJG, Lil' Jon and the East Side Boyz, Lady May, and Now City. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door, available by calling 704-522-6500.
The rapper Bow Wow, the artist formerly known as Lil' Bow Wow (how about Jes' Bow Wow? Simply Bow Wow?), will appear along with pals B2K and IMX (guess "Bow Wow" isn't so bad after all) today at 5pm at the Charlotte Coliseum. Tickets are $35, available by calling 704-522-6500.
Radio station 106.5 WEND presents Weenie Roast 8, its annual concert event, beginning at 11am. Acts featured include Nickelback, Filter, Default, Our Lady Peace, Berlin, Doves and many more. Tickets are $19.75, $29.75 and $39.75, available by calling 704-522-6500.SEPTEMBER
23 - MONDAYThe Off-Tryon Theatre Company will present the First Ever NoDa New PlayFest and Short Play SLAM! today through Wednesday at Off-Tryon Theatre. With unpublished, never-before-seen scripts from local, regional and national playwrights, the event will give audiences a chance to participate in the creative process with critiques following each play. Monday nights are Short Play SLAM! Nights, with plays varying in length from 10-45 minutes. Tuesday and Wednesday nights will be more traditional staged readings of unproduced full-length plays. Shows start at 7pm. Playfest Passes are available for $50 and include admission to all plays and events. For more information, call 704-375-2826 or visit online at www.offtryon.org.
Author and historian David McCullough, recently awarded his second Pulitzer Prize for his biography of John Adams, will speak tonight at 8pm at the Performing Arts Center on the topic of "Presidential Leadership in Times of Crisis." Afterward, McCullough will sign books at the Levine Museum of the New South. Tickets are $25-$35 and are available by calling 704-372-1000. For more information, call 704-333-1887.SEPTEMBER
24 - TUESDAY
The Southeast Origami Festival begins today. Thirty locations throughout the city will house exhibits (from today through September 30) that collectively show the versatility, potential, depth, and influence the art form has had over recent decades. Over half the exhibits are gathered in the center-city area in the form of a tour that may be experienced by walking or riding the free center city trolley buses, or, get this, OriLand, located at Gateway Village. Ticket prices vary according to the events attended. For more information or a detailed listing of events call 704-375-3692 or visit online at www.southeastorigami.home.mindspring.com.