Performance
Angels in America
Paul Green Theatre
Tues. through Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. from Jan. 29 to Mar. 6.
Tickets $10 to $45
In two parts — the first, “Millenium Approaches” then “Perestroika” — “Angels in America” explores the issues of AIDS and homosexuality in the 1980s.
Tony Kushner’s award-winning drama features two couples — one gay and one straight — and their encounters with disease, sex and sexuality in the age of Reagan.
The two parts will run in rotating repertory through the week and back-to-back beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
The show officially opened with “Millenium Approaches” this Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Read assistant editor Katelyn Trela’s preview of the play here
And look for staff writer Colin Warren-Hicks’ review of the play Monday in the print edition!
Broadway Melodies
UNC Pauper Players
The Student Union Cabaret
8 p.m. Friday Feb. 4 through Tuesday Feb. 8
Tickets $5 students, $10 general admission
Pauper Player’s annual revue of musical comedy parodies should be chock full of theatrical humor, as always. The trio of mini-shows: — “Glee! The Musical,.” “A Very Tarantino Musical” and “Mean Girls: The Musical” — will likely include musical and lyrical references to shows you’ve never heard of and never will, but the production quality of this mid-season Pauper effort is usually silly enough to make the evening a lot of fun.
Sterilize
The Performance Collective
The Student Artery
6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3 and 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 4
Also 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5 at the Pinhook in Durham
Admission is Pay as You Wish
The latest show from the Performance Collective is a one-act dramatic critique of cultural cleanliness. The versatile space at the Artery serves as the setting for the first two iterations of the production.
Canvas has been following the work of Performance Collective member Peter Pendergrass as a part of our “In the Studio” series. We don’t know too much about the show, but we do know it is likely to be an off-kilter look at modern society’s love of being clean.
Check out staff writer’s Tariq Luthun’s preview of the performance here.
Art
The Magical Real-ism of Amy Sherald
Robert and Sallie Brown Gallery in the Stone Center
Mon. to Fri., 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Feb. 3 – April 27
Free admission
Thursday night, Amy Sherald will present the opening of her exhibition “The Magical Real-ism of Amy Sherald.”
Sherald’s artwork is a self-reflection of life as a Southern black woman through post-modern eyes. The work removes the idea of skin color, illustrating the race of her characters through physical characteristics instead. The images grew into fantastical portrayals, full of color and life.
First Year
John and June Alcott Gallery, Hanes Art Center
Jan. 11 – Feb. 11
Free admission
This one month exhibit in Hanes Art Center features the work of students currently in the first year of a master’s in fine arts, including Lee Delegard, Ashley Florence, Cora Lim, Chris Musina, Jason Osborne, Neill Prewitt, Jonathan Sherrill and Seoun Som.
These eight artists’ works explore a variety of themes and mediums. See the artwork in the John and June Alcott Gallery.
Read staff writer Julie Cooper’s profile of the show here.
Ackland Art Museum
Gallery and Exhibits (10 a.m. – 8 pm Thursday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. Sunday)
Free admission
Through March, the Ackland is featuring three exhibitions:
-“Tradition in Clay: Two Centuries of Classic North Carolina Pots” features pottery from various collections — including Ackland’s own — all native to North Carolina. More than 100 pots are on display.
-“At Work in the Wilderness: Picturing the American Landscape, 1820-1920” explores the conflicting ideas of land in the quickly urbanizing country. The paintings all examine how one might reframe natural landscapes. The collection shines a light on the human/nature relationship. An audio accompaniment to the exhibit further explores ideas about the changing American landscape of the time.
-“The Oldest Paintings in America” showcases, through photography, the ancient rock art in Utah’s Colorado Plateau. Goodloe Suttler photographed the rock paintings that date to around 5,000 B.C.
Arts Editor Nick Andersen went to see the exhibits last Sunday, and his review will be forthcoming on this very blog.
The Ackland is also featuring the film, “A Fire in My Belly,” by artist David Wojnarowicz, in its second floor Study Gallery.
Wojnarowicz’s film — which was recently removed from the Smithsonian Institute’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. — features a scene in which ants crawl on a crucifix and deals largely with Wojnarowicz’s battle with AIDS.
The installation at the Ackland includes three films – two longer original cuts by the artist and the four-minute version that was re-edited by the Smithsonian.
All three versions of “Fire in my Belly” will be screened until Feb. 13 in the Study Gallery. Read staff writer Katherine Proctor’s post on an discussion panel discussing the film here.
Nasher Museum of Art
Gallery and Exhibits
Ongoing, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. – 9 p.m .Thursday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
$5 general admission, $3 non-Duke students with I.D., free on Thursdays
The Nasher at Duke continues the Record exhibit on vinyl art. Go now before the grooves disappear in early February. The end is coming. You have been warned.
But tonight, the Nasher continues its musical methods with the opening of “The Jazz Loft Project: W. Eugene Smith in New York City, 1957-1965,” a beautiful collection of photography and recordings from a crucial era in the jazz scene. There’s even an opening reception tonight with live jazz. Head on out on that Robertson Bus if you feel like getting groovy.
Miscellaneous
The Roof and Visit Iraq
FedEd Global Center
Feb. 4 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Free admission
Award-winning international director Kamal Aljafari has shown his films at various international festivals, and now Aljafari is visiting UNC. He will present two of his films, “The Roof” and “Visit Iraq,” which take different looks at modern Middle Eastern life. Aljafari will be present after the screenings to discuss his work.
“The Roof” (2006) is an hour-long documentary feature, depicting Aljafari’s family in Ramleh and Jaffa — two small villages between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. “The Roof” explores Aljafari’s damaged home, exploring the rooms and reflecting on the old story of the roofless house that his family made home in 1948. Aljafari’s family members are his cast. The film is in Arabic and Hebrew with English subtitles.
The film won Best International On Screen (Video) Award at the 2008 Images Festival in Toronto as well as Best Soundtrack at the FID Marseille Documentary Festival in France.
The second film, “Visit Iraq” (2003), is a 26-minute look at the Iraqi Airways agency in Geneva, Switzerland. It has been abandoned and empty since 1990. Aljafari humorously explores the rumors surrounding the building.
Aljafari’s most recent film, “Port of Memory,” will be shown at Duke at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Richard White Auditorium on East Campus. The film received the Prix Louis Marcorelles from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Check out the print edition for a story on the films tomorrow!
Blue Sky Film Festival
Lumina Theatre
Feb. 4 through Feb. 6
Tickets are $5 for individual film blocks, $45 for festival
The first ever Blue Sky Film Festival will assemble a diverse range of local and international films and filmmakers in Chapel Hill’s Southern Village for a weekend of film.
The schedule includes some local film shorts, a series of Buster Keaton silent films and the award-winning Full Frame feature, “Last Train Home,” among other films and presentations.
Southern Village kind of already looks like a movie set — think “The Truman Show” — but the Lumina is a great space, and the festival looks set to be a lovely weekend of unusual and alternative film making.
Check out the print edition on Friday for a story on the festival from staff writer Rachel Coleman.
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