Last week, when US Air was sending up its Chapter 11 flare, Charlotte-Douglas Airport wasn’t the only site of a media stampede. Over in Founders Hall, another herd of cameras and scribes was raising dust clouds, clustering together with representatives from most of the city’s major performing arts and cultural organizations.What could have sparked this moment of crisis — when Charlotte’s proud corps of TV stations came perilously close to being aware of cultural activity in their midst?
It was the beautifully orchestrated announcement of Charlotte Shout. And free grub.
Tim Newman, the preternaturally upbeat president of Charlotte Center City Partners, made the announcement into a bouquet of microphones. He aptly described the five-week extravaganza as a gathering of previously scheduled events — with some attention-grabbing additions.
Foremost among the fresh goodies is CityVerve, a newly minted jazz and heritage festival reincarnating an old September standby, JazzCharlotte. Nnenna Freelon, John Mayall, Poncho Sanchez, John Scofield, Tower of Power, and Nicholas Payton will be the headliners.
But that, as they say in showbiz, is not all. The legendary Paul Taylor Dance Company will make its first Charlotte appearance in 20 years; the Blumenthal will celebrate its 10th anniversary; and the “month of art and soul” will conclude with Culinary Experience Week, presented by Johnson & Wales and Compass Group. Toss in the International Origami Festival, and you have a very fine mess — and perhaps a city waking up to the true meaning of cultural diversity.
Everything that local Arts & Science Council affiliates had scheduled for September 1 through October 5 seems to have been swallowed up by the omnivorous Charlotte Shout. You could be next. Anybody standing in the streets of Charlotte could be trampled in the mad rush to climb on the bandwagon.
Of course, an aggregation of cultural events packaged together and branded with a colorful logo doesn’t make a true arts festival. And certainly not one with Spoleto-sized stature. There needs to be a fresh vision and knowledgeable, purposeful administration.
When Newman made his announcement, he said the name of the new artsfest took its name from a painting by Charlotte native Romare Bearden, “Carolina Shout.”
Oh, dear. As jazz aficionados know — and the late Bearden was among them — “Carolina Shout” was originally a signature piece by jazz immortal James P. Johnson. From Fats Waller onwards, “Carolina Shout” has been akin to the Rosetta Stone of jazz piano. Not knowing stuff like that can be pigeonholed in the same category as not completing the organ at Belk Theater before its 10th anniversary. Embarrassin’.
It’s also symptomatic of a festival conceived and organized by a business outfit — one that developed a web site before hiring an artistic director.
In future years, we can hope that Charlotte Shout will grow in wisdom and maturity. Meanwhile it has provided the most exciting marketing boost ever for the traditional beginning of Charlotte’s arts season. If local groups haven’t given sufficient attention to opening with a bang, the hoopla of Charlotte Shout will supply the incentive for years to come.
An Enthralling FallFortunately, nearly all of Charlotte’s major theater groups had decided to hit the ground running without any prompting from Center City Partners.
Actor’s Theatre of Charlotte, CL’s reigning Theatre Company of the Year, may be getting the hottest start, launching their season on October 9 with Moises Kaufman’s docudrama exploring the kidnap/murder of gay U of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, The Laramie Project. They’re also planning to end the season with a splash, staging the Charlotte premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch (May 28)
Theatre Charlotte is opening its diamond 75th anniversary season on September 12 with Show Boat by Jerome Kern, Edna Ferber, and Oscar Hammerstein II — an American theater landmark that also happens to be celebrating its diamond jubilee. Lend Me a Tenor follows on Halloween and Cat On a Hot Tin Roof returns to the Queens Road barn after a 16-year hiatus (January 23).
Under new leadership, Charlotte Rep is leading off its new season with Tennessee Williams’ most acclaimed drama, The Glass Menagerie, previewing on September 7. The PR drumbeat for the new Rep era has begun as Broadway veteran Joseph Hardy has been brought in to direct while the red carpet is laid out for Emmy-winning North Carolina native Penny Fuller to star as Amanda Wingfield. Then Rep will follow up by co-producing the 1988 Tony Winner, David Hwang’s M. Butterfly (October 19).
Tom Vance is retired but the beat goes on at CPCC with Tom Hollis at the helm. CP brings back the first musical ever presented at panoramic Pease Auditorium back in 1969, The Fantasticks (September 27), following up with William Inge’s Picnic (November 1).
The first full season of the Alan Poindexter regime begins at Children’s Theatre without much fanfare. We’ll get the Tarradiddle Players doing their small-scale Commedia Puss in Boots at the Morehead Street fantasy palace (September 20), followed by the full-scale Canterville Ghost, based on an Oscar Wilde tale, at Spirit Square before Halloween (October 18).
At Belk Theater,the Broadway Lights Series contributes the new national tour of West Side Story to Charlotte Shout (September 10). Then on October 8, the renovated Ovens Auditorium reopens with Mamma Mia!, the hit ABBA show with the famously flimsy plot.Gotta DanceThe coming of the legendary Paul Taylor Company for Charlotte Shout is the crowning touch on the richest dance lineup ever presented here. We’ve progressed far beyond our ample collection of Nutcracker productions.
North Carolina Dance Theatre will present two prestigious premieres in its season opener, Fall Trilogy (September 19), one by choreographer Mark Godden and one by Nicolo Fonte, to go along with a Balanchine standard, “The Four Temperaments.” Excitement is also building for Mark Diamond’s newest piece, “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”, part of NCDT’s Winter Trilogy (January 30).
Moving Poets Theatre of Dance is becoming more prominent on the scene, and more prolific. They’ll be participating in Charlotte Shout with an oldie — and freebie — at Spirit Square, Coulrophobia (September 2). Then at Booth Playhouse on October 9, they’ll stage a significant world premiere, Gateway South, inspired by NC painter Maud Gatewood and already earmarked for inclusion in a documentary by Oscar-winning director David Casper. Moving Poets will also play a key role in the burgeoning scene at Hart-Witzen Gallery with their third annual 6/15 festival of short new multimedia pieces.
The PAC is bringing in Ballet Hispanico (October 6) and the curiously ever-popular Lord of the Dance (November 12). In between at the Belk, Carolinas Concert Association has the Shanghai Ballet performing Coppelia (October 28). It all makes for a very full Fall dance card.The HighbrowsAfter years of superficial nods to contemporary American composers, modern classics, and truly challenging evergreens, Charlotte Symphony has finally committed to leading its subscribers on ongoing adventures in music. Throughout the fall, emphasis remains on new works and intense classics. Symphony Spotlight (September 27) features Christof Perick conducting the world premiere of Donald Crockett’s “Blue Earth.” Evening-long premieres of Mahler’s Symphony #3 and Britten’s “War Requiem” are also in Perick’s crosshairs.
Opera Carolina is also aspiring to new heights, significantly — and bravely — expanding their season during the dread economic crunch. After presenting Denyce Graves in concert (September 5), OC makes with the scenery and supertitles on October 17 with Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Belk. The company makes a Christmas excursion to Spirit Square with Amahl and the Night Visitors (December 20) before staging a regional premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s new Cold Sassy Tree (February 20).Carolinas Concert Association delivers handsomely for their loyal subscribers. Aside from the full-length Coppelia, CCA is bringing in violinist Joshua Bell (November 19) and the New York Philharmonic (February 9). And for all-out, flag-waving, lite classical glitz, there’s no beating our own Charlotte Philharmonic’s season opener with NYPD superstar tenor Daniel Rodriguez and the Eddie Mabry Dancers, An American Salute — From Sea to Shining Sea (September 8).
The RenegadesBareBones Theatre Group, Chickspeare, and the Off-Tryon Theatre Company banded together last season and, aided by a historic grant from the Arts & Science Council, marketed themselves as Charlotte’s Off-Broadway. Their survival into another season is ample proof that the marketing concept took hold.
So is the newly sprouted Warehouse Theatre, combining strands of at least three theater groups into a lively co-op at the Hart-Witzen Gallery on 5th Street. And might this Charlotte Shout leviathan, engorging Off-Tryon’s season opener, Bent (September 12) and the company’s NoDa New Play Fest (September 16), be a marketing descendant of last year’s alliance, gleefully swallowing its own parent?
Yes, Off-Tryon is in the belly of the great Shout beast, but so far, BareBones and Chickspeare are not. All, however, remain united under the same humble roof on Cullman Avenue. BareBones launches its fifth season with a fetching combo, Rich Orloff’s Someone’s Knocking: An Odd Little Comedy at Off-Tryon (October 3) and Tony Kushner’s The Illusion at the Afro-Am Cultural Center (November 14).
Chickspeare, fluttering away from Anne Lambert’s nurturing wing, presents Shakespeare’s R&J at Off-Tryon (December 12).
Lambert’s enterprising spirit has not been extinguished by her new desk job at Charlotte Rep. She’s presenting perhaps the most indispensable show on the schedule, Tiny Ninja Theatre Presents Macbeth at Off-Tryon (September 20).
Warehouse Theatre was decreed at 611 West 5th by gallery owner Cindy Hart. Handling the executive management chores is restless pioneer Michael Simmons, the co-founder of Off-Tryon, who’s been crowded out of the Matthews Community Theatre, presumably because they’re clueless in that little town. Matthews’ loss is Uptown’s gain. In quick succession, Warehouse Theatre will be presenting Macbeth (September 12); Snapshot, a quick import from the 2002 Humana Festival in Louisville (September 26); Closet Land; Sci-fi Political Psychodrama Weekends (October 17); and a recreation of Patient 307, a choice Twilight Zone episode. But that’s just the lineup before the Warehouse stages their Theatre Halloween Party and Moving Poets brings in their 6/15. The full Warehouse schedule, issued August 9, lists 11 more events, extending out through August 16 of 2003.More blind optimism and ambition come spewing forth from Carver Johns, one-time mainstay at Off-Tryon and winner of CL’s Best Dramatic Actor Award in 2001. He’s launching innerVoices Theatre Company up in NoDa on 25th Street, and there are plenty of heavyweights in his first season. He’s opening with a choice pair in the fall, Sam Shepherd’s A Lie of the Mind (October 3) and Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (December 5). Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow (March 13) gets its overdue Charlotte debut if Carver & Co. can stay the course.
It’s a great scene — if you can keep up with it. We’ll do our best.
This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2002.
