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(11/13/09 5:50am)
Though all of the choral groups on campus share a passion for singing, they each have a unique approach. This weekend, three groups will bring their own styles to the stage.“Every group kind of has their shtick,” said Katie Paxton, president of the Loreleis.“The Clefs wear vests, and the Achordants are a little bit sillier and just go all out.”The Loreleis and the Achordants will perform tonight and Saturday night, while Heels to Heaven will perform Sunday afternoon.Here’s more about each group’s signature style:The LoreleisThe Loreleis, the oldest all-female a cappella group on campus, have themed their fall jam “Sweet 16” in honor of their 16 members.The Loreleis will perform at 8 p.m. today and Saturday in Gerrard Hall.As an additional sweet treat, Sugarland will sell their cupcakes at the show. The business is sponsoring the jam with University Florist.The group’s repertoire this weekend will consist of a hip-hop medley, a song by Nickel Creek and songs from today and the ’90s.The jam also features several guest groups, including the Clef Hangers, and groups from Duke University, the University of Virginia, James Madison University and the University of Pennsylvania.“All of our guest groups are all-male, so we think that’s fun,” Paxton said.Tickets are $6 in advance and $8 at the door. People can also get tickets at the Student Union or Memorial Hall box offices or reserve tickets by sending an e-mail to loreleis@unc.edu.The AchordantsThe Achordants, an all-male a cappella group, are known for using a combination of songs and skits in their shows.“We try to make our performances pretty fun and more engaging for the audience,” said Ben Phillis, a junior and Achordants president. “We just pride ourselves on entertaining.”They will perform at 8:08 p.m. today and Saturday at Hamilton Hall, Room 100. Tickets are $5 in advance and $7 at the door.Their shows this weekend are titled “The Achordants Stimulate the Economy.” The themes for the shows are usually picked to reflect recent events or whatever they can make entertaining.“When the whole group is together goofing around, we just throw out ideas,” Phillis said.At the concert, the Achordants will perform an eclectic mix of oldies, R&B, current pop, punk rock and ’90s music.Heels to HeavenHeels to Heaven, a contemporary Christian choir that sings a mix of accompanied and unaccompanied songs, will be performing a free one-hour concert at 3 p.m. Sunday in the Great Hall.The group prides itself on its acceptance of anyone, regardless of singing experience.“You don’t really have to have the best voice in world, just a willingness to come sing with us,” said Erica Hall, the group’s director.The group will be performing a mix of traditional and contemporary Christian songs, both a cappella and accompanied by piano and guitar.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(10/21/09 4:55am)
Nearly 300 people will enter the Carolina Inn at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, leaving Chapel Hill behind for a night of international carnivals.PlayMakers Repertory Company will hold its 22nd annual ball, with a theme of carnivals around the world.“When you come in it’s quite magical,” said Stacy Payne, director of development at PlayMakers Repertory Company.“It’s a real theatrical transformation, and that seems very fitting for us.”The proceeds from the event go towards funding the educational and artistic initiatives of the non-profit regional theater. A single ticket is $500.This year the fundraiser will honor Elizabeth Price Kenan, an advocate of student education and supporter of the Department of Dramatic Arts and PlayMakers, who has helped with the previous balls.“She’s a serious play-lover,” Payne said. “That’s something that’s really special to us.”Every year, there is a different theme for the event.Many times it relates to a play the company will do that year, but this year it’s special, reflecting an air of celebration.“This year it’s all about celebration,” said McKay Coble, chairwoman of the drama department and member of PlayMakers.“We just want to celebrate (Kenan) and all the great work she does, particularly for us.”Each dining room will be decorated by local designers, with a different festival from around the world in mind for each.“There are some famous ones, but we found some really wacky ones around the world,” Coble said, who is designing the Old Well Room to look like the Carnival of Venice.“You’re just going to find different approaches to it no matter where you look.”The carnivals featured range from Mardi Gras to those of Rio de Janeiro and India, to the more “wacky” such as a snow carnival and a medieval orange-throwing carnival.“It’s a really fun party,” Coble said. “For us, it’s almost like another show.”The event will feature a variety of happenings throughout the evening, including a cocktail hour, the award presentation for Kenan, dinner served by the inn’s Executive Chef Jim Reale, and dancing late into the night in the Old Well Room.Although it is a black-tie event, the atmosphere is not very formal as the guests will not be confined to their chairs and much of the time is spent mixing and mingling.Event coordinators expect to draw a diverse group of attendees. “There are artists, political people, social people, university people — all of the above,” Payne said. “It really is just people having a really good time with friends or acquaintances or making new friends.”During the past three years, PlayMakers has worked to expand its influence to area middle and high schools. The group has put on programs for nearly 100,000 regional students.“There’s a lot of need for arts education,” Payne said.“It makes a difference to a young person to see and be involved in it.”Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(10/12/09 4:36am)
4.5 of 5 stars
(10/09/09 4:31am)
Three talented musicians in their own right will combine their disparate styles to create a genre-defying musical experience this Sunday.Banjoist Béla Fleck, Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain and double bassist Edgar Meyer will play as part of the Carolina Performing Arts series. “Each of these musicians are superstars in their own right,” said Emil Kang, director of CPA. “You have three of the world’s greatest musicians of their respective instruments who’ve collaborated before and want to get together.”Fleck has been playing banjo since age 15. He said in an e-mail that he had not planned to be a musician, but it became his only option after high school.“Béla Fleck has played with everyone, basically, on this planet … everything from rock to pop to classical,” Kang said.Hussain is known both in India and around the world for his skill on the tabla, an Indian drum.“Zakir Hussain is a god in the tabla,” Kang said. Meyer is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, also called the “genius grant.” He has established himself as both an accomplished performer and composer in many genres.All three musicians, while known for individually crossing the boundaries of musical genre and culture, create something new together.“It’s not Indian music, it’s not classical music, and it’s not bluegrass music. It’s none of those and it’s all of it at the same time,” Kang said.This new musical creation is possible because these instruments all share one thing: rhythm. Melody and rhythm, which normally are contrasting elements, are one in the same to them.Both Fleck and Meyer have performed at Memorial Hall before.“That was one of the best shows I can remember,” Fleck said, of last year’s show at Memorial Hall. One thing the audience perhaps can take away is the ever-changing nature of music.“We hope people actually let go of those labels, and come to the performance able and willing to experience the music for what it is,” Kang said.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(09/16/09 4:42am)
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(09/11/09 3:07pm)
On Saturday and Sunday, the N.C. Literary Festival welcomes Allan Gurganus and other authors. The DTH got a chance to talk to the author of “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.”DTH: How long have you been writing?Allan Gurganus: I went to arts school when I was 17, and then I was drafted into the U.S. Navy. And I really started writing as a result of the war in Vietnam. I was on an aircraft carrier with 4,000 other men, and there was a library on board.I’m now 62, so I guess I’ve been writing about 41 years or something like that.DTH: In general, what do you like to write about?AG: Family conflict is fascinating to me and family resemblances are fascinating to me. I believe in those two categories as they apply to history, too. So I’m interested in families and history and families in history.DTH: Where do you normally get your inspirations for writing? AG: I subscribe to three newspapers today. I think any page of any newspaper can give you enough material to last a lifetime as a writer.There are just stories like gold ore, lying around everywhere. I also have a post office box, and I go downtown to my post office everyday.It’s a very rare day that I don’t hear a story coming and going to the post office. So gossip must never be underestimated.Just the news that people find interesting enough to tell or convey is often something that’s contradictory, or something that’s hilarious or embarrassing.All fiction is about people in trouble, and gossip is usually about people getting into or out of trouble.DTH: Do you have a favorite literary memory? Anything that stands out as being the best part of your experience as a writer so far?AG: Seeing a person on a train reading your short story, sitting beside them and watching them turn the pages, is very sexy. … It’s almost like literary porn or something, to be able to watch somebody read your work and be anonymous.And the first published story and first time you hold your book in your hand …People always talk about writing as something that you do in solitude, but all of the writers that I love the most are the best listeners, which means they can imitate other people because they have listened with tremendous concentration and respect to other people. DTH: Are you reading a book right now?AG: What I really do is I go back frequently to read (Anton) Chekhov short stories. He is a major inspiration.I try to read contemporary work, but between courses I read three or four Chekhov stories, and it’s like taking a one-a-day multiple vitamin.So humane and so clear and so seemingly simple that it makes you think you can write better than you actually can, but it’s very inspiring. I always send my writing students to Chekhov as a beautiful teaching writer.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(09/11/09 3:03pm)
North Carolina writer Will Blythe and a host of local and national writers will descend upon UNC this weekend as part of the N.C. Literary Festival.The DTH got a chance to speak with Blythe, the author of Tar Heel favorite “To Hate Like this is to be Happy Forever,” about the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry. DTH: How long have you been writing and had a career as an author?Will Blythe: Well, I’ve been making my living as a freelance writer since 1997. Before that, for about 10 years, I was the literary editor for Esquire Magazine and I wrote some then, but I also did a lot of editing.DTH: What do you normally like to write about?WB: I really am interested in writing about a wide variety of things. I’ve written a lot of magazine stories, for different magazines ranging from Rolling Stone to the New Yorker to the Oxford American. I wrote about a neo-Nazi writer down in West Virginia, actors, musicians and some politics and religion. I’m a regular book reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and I have a lot of fun doing that.DTH: Where do you normally get your inspirations for writing?WB: It’s a really sort of primal way to put things into words. And the subject matter is almost irrelevant. It’s just sitting down and trying to articulate things as precisely as you can. For some reason I find that addicting. I don’t know why.DTH: And so you’re involved with the N.C. Literary Festival this weekend, and you’re speaking with Thomas Wagner, known as Cadillac Man. I read a little bit about it online, but tell me more about that. What can people expect?WB: Cadillac was a homeless man for close to 15 years here in New York. And he lived under a bridge halfway down the block from me. We met because lots of us in the neighborhood used that underpass as a shortcut to getting to the subway. And so we met under that bridge in 2002 and became great friends. … So we were friends, and then I noticed one day that he was writing in these old-fashioned spiral notebooks, and I asked him what he was writing, and he said he was writing the story of his life as a homeless man. And the reason he was doing that he told me was that he feared that he was going to die out on the streets and he was going to be buried in what they call Potter’s Fields, which is where they bury you when your family doesn’t claim you. There are thousands of anonymous bodies buried out there, people who were never claimed. It is known as the Land of Lost Souls, which is the title of Cadillac’s book. …I told him I said if you ever want me to read those notebooks, just let me know.But I didn’t really think he was actually going to give me one. But about six months later, he handed me several notebooks one day, and he said, “Let me know what you think.” …I started reading and the first thing I read was this incredible story of his romance, when he was first homeless with this young homeless woman named Penny. It’s a chapter in the book now. They fell in love and eventually he ended up calling her aunt and uncle, without her knowing it, so they could come and take her off the streets.And he said goodbye to her and he’s never seen her again since, and she was the great love of his life. So I read that and I thought, “Oh man, this guy can actually write!” And I sent it to former colleagues of mine at Esquire who eventually published an excerpt of it, which helped him get a book deal with Bloomsbury Press.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(09/03/09 4:37am)
Only one theater group on campus allows students to combine a passion for health and social justice issues, acting and even improvisation.Interactive Theatre Carolina, a group that promotes these issues, kicks off its third year with its last round of auditions from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. today on the third floor of Campus Health Services.Part of Counseling and Wellness Services, the group has about 20 members.The group has 12 scripts to choose from that cover topics such as race relations, sexual assault and body image. This year the group has added a new scene highlighting the issues of depression and suicide.Their typical performances consist of three parts, beginning with a scripted scene in which the characters experience a conflict.The second portion provides the audience with the opportunity to become part of the action by asking the performers questions while they are still in character.“The audience is an integral and essential part of the performance,” said Ben Saypol, program coordinator for Interactive Theatre Carolina.Finally, a post-performance conversation wraps things up as the performers, audience and facilitators discuss the issue at hand. Audience members also can suggest solutions to the conflict.“The response is unexpected but in a good way,” said Yorick de Visser, a senior dramatic art major and member of the group.The group performs many times throughout the year at a wide variety of locations on and around campus, from classrooms to chapter meetings in Greek houses.From a performer’s perspective, the experience can be extremely rewarding.“It’s the best of both worlds because it combines acting with actual purpose behind it,” said Reema Khrais, a sophomore and member of the group.Some performers expressed greater interest in the latter two sections of the productions.“Ultimately what really gets me is when we do the Q & A,” de Visser said. “You’re being confronted with your character and feel real emotions that come with that.”De Visser said the characters’ ideas and actions often push performers beyond their average acting range.Khrais said the post-performance conversation is the most interesting, as it allows people to talk about living with these conflicts.Though the group is not very old, it is gaining a steady audience and expanding its performance material.After accumulating 4,500 audience members during last year’s 37 performances, the group aims to draw even larger audiences this year.A new addition to the group’s lineup, Interactive Theatre Workshops, allows other organizations to request facilitators from the group to lead them in performance exercises that address a pertinent issue.Facilitators will work through some of the same issues with groups that they cover in their traditional format, including social justice and wellness.Ultimately the group hopes to spread its messages to the campus community and increase its scope.“We just want to build on the success,” Saypol said.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.