By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

“The Color Purple,” originally scheduled for Aug. 18-22 at the Fox Theatre, has been postponed until next June 15-19.

The presenter, Theater of the Stars, cited a “scheduling conflict” for the change, noting that it hopes to bring the musical to Atlanta every two years starting in 2011.

Ticket-holders can keep their tickets and keep the same seats for the same performance day and time next summer, exchange tickets for another performance of the show or request a refund at the point of purchase.

Questions: 404-252-8960.

Continue reading Theater of the Stars postpones ‘Color Purple’ at Fox until June 2011 »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

The Earl Smith Strand Theatre on the Marietta Square will launch its first concert series this August, featuring seven shows of homegrown Georgia talent.
When the restored 1935 movie theater reopened in 2008, it was strictly a rental house, and concert bookings were infrequent. Because of the tough economy, the 531-seat theater started producing its own scattered concerts, including an April show by the Jimmy Buffett tribute band A1A that sold out and turned away more than 300.
“Every time we’ve had concerts, they’ve either sold out or we’ve had high attendance,” said Christy Rosell, director of business development and marketing. “And people would say, ‘Please do this more.’”
The annual concert series announced this week complements showings of movies and a variety of performances, including a season of musicals by the Atlanta Lyric Theatre, which opens “Hairspray” on July 23.
The concert lineup:
Aug. 20: Soulphonics and Ruby Velle. Outfit …

Continue reading Marietta’s Strand Theatre adds homegrown concert series »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

In a substantial loss for the High Museum of Art, Julian Cox, curator of photography since 2005, is leaving Atlanta to become the founding curator of photography for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and chief curator of the de Young Museum.

Cox  has added more than 1,000 works to the High’s permanent photography collection during his five-year tenure.  Highlights include an archive of 325 prints that document the history of the civil rights era – the largest of its kind in any art museum in the United States – a cache of more than 100 photographs by Eugéne Atget, and important monographic holdings by contemporary photographers such as Emmett Gowin, Sze Tsung Leong, Danny Lyon, Richard Misrach, Taryn Simon and Alec Soth.

He also mounted a number of important exhibitions, including “Harry Callahan:  Eleanor” (2007), “Road to Freedom:  Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement,” 1956-1968 (2008) and the current show “Signs of …

Continue reading Photography curator Cox leaving High Museum for San Francisco »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Choreographer Lauri Stallings, whose gloATL company performances are as much quicksilver happenings as they are modern dance, will return to the Woodruff Arts Center with a site-specific premiere on July 23-24.

“Roem,” her third work at the Midtown center in gloATL’s inaugural season, will blend dance, music, multimedia and theatrical design. The production will feature music by Tom Sherwood of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Sonic Generator, Georgia Tech’s contemporary music ensemble-in-residence.

To be performed free both nights at 8 on the piazza outside the High Museum, “Roem” promises to speak to the issue of globalization. It will be the culmination of a five-week Woodruff residency.

More info: www.woodruffcenter.org/roem.aspx.

Continue reading GloATL to glow at Woodruff Arts Center on July 23-24 »

Flux Projects, which presents temporary public art throughout Atlanta aimed at engaging audiences beyond the walls of traditional arts venues, today has announced a broad slate of 25 projects for the 2010-11 season. Here’s the news (in press release form) just in from Flux…

Flux Projects Announces 2010-11 Projects

Flux Projects is proud to announce its selection of projects for July 2010 through May 2011.  The first of these 25 projects will begin later this summer with new pieces introduced every month through next spring.  They include large and small-scale projections, performance, dance, music, sculpture, light and sound installations, and other forms of public interactions.  They will be found in remarkably diverse locations spanning from the clouds above the city to the restroom of your favorite bar. In between they will be seen along roadways, on sidewalks, projected against buildings, and situated in atriums, parks, and parking lots.  They will explore the …

Continue reading Flux Projects announces 25 public art projects for 2010-11 »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

As one of two nonwhite pupils attending a London secondary school of 1,500, Douglas Tappin, the son of Jamaican parents, was subjected to taunts and violence. Still, the strides being made by Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders an ocean away felt a bit distant.
It wasn’t until the full-time barrister and part-time composer-librettist moved to Atlanta four years ago, to explore the intersection of faith and art at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology, that King’s story began to breathe for him.
Now Tappin hopes to help spread the gospel of all that the assassinated leader gave the world through “I Dream,” a rhythm-and-blues opera receiving its world premiere, with a cast of 37 and an orchestra of 15, on the Alliance Theatre main stage Friday.
We talked to Tappin, 43, who wrote the book, music and lyrics for “I Dream” and is one its four co-producers, before the first preview this week of the Jasmine Guy-directed …

Continue reading MLK musical ‘I Dream’ a dream realized for British composer »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

The National Black Arts Festival’s schedule is lean this year, the result of fund-raising realities amid a recession and a new leader’s push to focus the annual gathering’s programming.
Like last year’s edition, the upcoming festival will run five busy days, Wednesday through Sunday, July 14-18. Ambitious and diverse, the offerings range from a musical tribute to the late Curtis Mayfield and trombonist Wycliffe Gordon leading a big band performance of his score for the 1925 silent film “Body and Soul” to a “Brazil Fest” component organized in conjunction with the Consulate of Brazil in Atlanta. That festival within a festival imports the revered singer-composer Ivan Lins and the Afro-Brazilian percussion group Olodum, among other artists, from South America’s largest country.
Based last year at the Woodruff Arts Center, the fest is returning to Centennial Park and many ticketed events will be staged in venues within walking distance, such as …

Continue reading Here’s your guide to navigating the National Black Arts Festival next week »

By Howard Pousner
hpousner@ajc.com

Every metro area city or major neighborhood puts on a festival, or a few, every year. But the Midtown Festival of the Arts, being announced officially today, can make a claim that separates it from the rest: It will shut down Peachtree Street.

Mayor Kasim Reed is expected to help spill the details of the Sept. 25-26 event, which will take place on Peachtree between 5th and 10th streets, at a morning news conference at Midtown’s Loews Atlanta Hotel. Peachtree has been closed to traffic for a sprinkling of permitted events in the past, such as First Night and Midtown Music Festival reveling, but organizers believe this is the first time it will happen for an arts festival.

“There are a number of reasons and ideas behind this [event], but Peachtree has always been the backbone,” festival president Leslie Johnson said. “We want people to walk up and down our street and see what we’ve got.”

Johnson wasn’t just referring to the festival, which will …

Continue reading New Midtown festival to close 5 Peachtree blocks in September »