“For decades, Fairmont State University has provided opportunities for the campus and the community to learn about the arts together through its many Town & Gown theatre productions and the former Community Music Program,” said Peter Lach, Dean of the School of Fine Arts. “We are pleased to be able to grow and increase our offerings to add instruction for the community and young people in other areas of the arts. The Academy strives to help beginners appreciate and train in the arts, and also gives exceptional students a place to shine and find opportunities for advanced study.”

The Academy for the Arts is dedicated to providing students with quality training and exposure to the arts. The academy utilizes FSU facilities and highly qualified instructors drawn from FSU faculty and area teachers. The Academy is a member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, using its standards as a base for its curriculum. The Academy for the Arts is integral to the University’s long standing identification with its community, in particular the cultural and social development of the region.

Classes for the spring semester in each of the six preparatory departments – creative writing, dance, theatre and music – will begin on Feb. 27. Classes will be offered on the main campus in Fairmont; music classes also will be available at the Gaston Caperton Center in Clarksburg. Classes in creative writing and world languages will be added this summer. Affordable classes are available at a variety of lengths and times. To view a class calendar and schedule and pricing, visit http://www.fairmontstate.edu/schooloffinearts/academy-arts or contact Geoffrey Steele, Assistant to the Dean of Fine Arts, at (304) 367-4144 or gsteele1@fairmontstate.edu.

New to the Music Preparatory Department will be show choir and guitar ensemble classes. New opportunities in the Theatre Preparatory Department will be creative drama for those ages 6-9, improvisation classes for those ages 10-13 and acting for teens for those ages 13-18. New in the Visual Arts Preparatory Department will be open studio time for young artists in two age categories, one for those ages 5-8 and one for those ages 9-12. New in the Dance Preparatory Department will be classes in the following types of dance: folk, modern, beginning clogging and intermediate and advanced clogging.

The following will serve as faculty for the Academy: Leigh Anne Bolyard of Fairmont, voice, choir and piano; Jordan Hoffmaster of Fairmont, voice and piano; Kyung-Ae Kim of Korea, piano; Ashley Davis of Fairmont, voice and piano; John Morrison of Morgantown, piano and strings; Joyce Wang, strings and piano;  Robert Skidmore, strings; Cheryl Nelsi, clarinet; Jason Noland of Parkersburg, piano; Jennifer Stafford of Fairmont, piano and voice; Greg DeVito of Fairmont, piano and voice; Elisha Nestor of Morgantown, voice; Jeanna Carder of Grafton, voice; Aaron Hostutler of Hundred, voice and guitar; John Vaughan, guitar and guitar ensemble; Josh Lucas, guitar; John Schneider of Fairmont, brass; Michael Robinson of Fairmont, percussion; Geoffrey Steele of Salem, clogging; Anna Harsh of Wheeling, folk and modern dance; Sandy Ball of Fairmont, visual art; Katherine Thompson of Morgantown, theatre. More information about these instructors can be found on the Academy of the Arts web site.

Addie Elliott, the daughter of Rusty and Mary Jo Elliott, is a first-grader at Blackshere Elementary School. Rusty Elliott, who is also the FSU Athletic Director, said he sees firsthand the benefits of having children participate in these classes. His daughter takes piano instruction from Leigh Ann Bolyard.

The exhibition features ninety artists representing ninety species— including mussels catfish, mudpuppies, shiners, darters, minnows and insects,  in a variety of media— who are united by a shared physical connection to the Monongahela Watershed.

The exhibition began in the Arts Monongahela Jackson Kelly Gallery in Morgantown last September and has subsequently been at the California University of Pennsylvania and the University of Charleston, West Virginia.  It will continue to travel throughout the Appalachian region for the next two years.

BACKGROUND:

Dunkard Creek meanders along the Mason-Dixon line for over 40 miles, back and forth across the Pennsylvania and West Virginia state lines, before it flows into the Monongahela River, recently listed as one of Americaʼs ten most endangered rivers. The Monongahela River supplies drinking water to 850,000 people. In September 2009, the entire forty-mile length of Dunkard Creek literally died, with some 65,000 water creatures floating dead to the surface or washing onto the banks. The culprit? A Golden Algae bloom, acid mine runoff, low water caused by high volume water withdrawals for fracking operations, and illegal dumping of Marcellus drilling wastewater – all at various times have been strongly implicated (links to articles discussing the causes of the kill-off will be found at the end of this post).

In a lawsuit following the death of the Creek, Consolidated Coal (Consol) was ordered to pay $500,000 to ‘restore’ the creek. Consol also agreed to pay $200 million to upgrade its treatment facilities, in addition to $5.5 million in civil penalties, though Consol has never formally accepted responsibility for the kill-off.

In late spring of 2011, the West Virginia DEP issued permits for two new hydraulic fracturing wells in Pentress, WV on Dunkard Creek. One such well, on average, uses 5.5 million gallons of water. Water for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is typically withdrawn from nearby streams or rivers. Regarding the effect of such withdrawals, Lou Reynolds, the chief EPA biologist on the scientific team which investigated the kill-off wrote: “… Dunkard Creek should be OFF LIMITS for gas companies looking to withdraw millions of gallons used to frack Marcellus wells.”

For more complete information,  see the New York Times story by Mike Soraghan of Greenwire, “In Fish-Kill Mystery, EPA Scientist Points at Shale Drilling”

This same article also appeared in the October 12 issue of Scientific American, with the title EPA Scientist Points at Fracking in Fish-Kill Mystery: A mysterious fish-kill in Dunkard Creek​ may have been the result of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing of shale for natural gas

Previously, the EPA investigation which found no conclusive link between Marcellus gas drilling and the Dunkard Creek fish kill was questioned by professor Dan Volz of the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Volz pointed out that Golden Algae is a coastal salt water algae and noted the highly concentrated salinity of fracking waste. Mine discharge is also salinic, but is it of sufficiently high salinity to affect an entire 40-mile stretch of stream? Dr. Volz’s discussion of this issue can be heard in the episode “Game Changer” of the National Public Radio news series, “This American Life”.

See also the related story, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Sues Consol Energy.

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission sues CONSOL for contributing to the death of nearly 65,000 fish, mussels and salamanders in Dunkard Creek in September 2009. The Suit takes into account recent suspicions that fracking wastes were involved.

See also the recent national story, which included two paintings from the “Reflections” exhibition, “What Killed Dunkard Creek? Residents in Pennsylvania and West Virginia say fracking is to blame“  by Adam Federman of the Earth Island Journal.

One of the 65,000 or so casualties

Pittsburgh’s innovative dance company, Attack Theatre will come to Wallman Hall Theatre on the Fairmont State University campus for three different performances on January 31 and February 1 and 2.

On Monday, January 30, at 4:30, there will be a Movement workshop for students, and at 7:30, a Meet the artist session, open to the public.  Both will take place in Wallman Hall Theatre.

On Tuesday, January 31,  television and radio appearances are slated.  The TV appearances will be by members of the company at WBOY and WDTV.   In the evening, at 7:30, in Wallman Hall Theatre, there will be a transfixing dance performance of  “Travelling” in two acts (‘The Travelling Saleman’ and ‘Travelling in Time’), with music by Ben Hardt and his band, the ‘New Victorians’”.  Tickets are $12 and can be obtained by calling the Box Office at 304-367-4240.

On Wednesday, February 1, a performance of “Leap into Action” will be presented in  Wallman Hall Theatre,  at 7:30 pm, followed by a talk back session.  Leap into Action is a dynamic performance which inspires students to leap into action as athletic dancers create exciting lifts and leaps using weight, balance, momentum, and even ladders and tables.   Students will recognize the different forms of inspiration that provide the impetus for this creation of contemporary dance. The dancers’ camaraderie on stage and relationship with the audience provides a fun-filled, interactive glimpse into the creative process.

On Thursday, February 2,  “Some Assembly Required”   will be performed in Wallman Hall.   Some Assembly Required is a dance and music event that engages the audience with performance, improvisation, and creation inspired by works of visual art. Performed in a museum or gallery setting, the process/performance is a collision of the planned and the spontaneous. The audience is rewarded with a truly unique glimpse into the company’s creative process. This work has been performed throughout the US and France in museums, galleries and sculpture gardens.

ABOUT ATTACK THEATRE

Under the artistic direction of Peter Kope and Michele de la Reza, Attack Theatre has been making personal, accessible and collaborative dance-based performances with “ninja-like intensity” (Pittsburgh Tribune Review) for fifteen years. They combine modern dance, original live music, multimedia and interdisciplinary art forms to present work in traditional and nontraditional spaces both nationally and internationally. They have collaborated with major regional theaters (Quantum Theatre), NYC Broadway productions (Squonk), museums (Carnegie Museum of Art, Andy Warhol Museum, Frick Art Museum, Mattress Factory), symphonies (Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra), operas (Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Spoleto USA) and international dance companies (Japan’s Nibroll Collective, Belgium’s Compagnie Matteo Moles), thereby presenting nearly 100 original works in theatrical and site specific settings. While maintaining a loyal audience in Pittsburgh, they have toured nationally in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Carolina, D.C., Texas, Washington, New York and Massachusetts; and internationally, throughout France, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland, Indonesia, Turkey and Japan.

HISTORY

Founded in 1994 by Artistic Directors Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope, Attack Theatre combines modern dance, original live music, multimedia and interdisciplinary art forms to present work in traditional and non-traditional spaces throughout the United States and around the world. In addition to the founding Artistic Directors, the artistic staff includes a music director/composer, technical director, dancers, musicians, video designers and scenic and costume designers. In 2007 the Board of Directors appointed a seasoned nonprofit professional, Donna Goyak, to the position of General Director.

The directors, Michele de la Reza (originally from Houston, TX) and Peter Kope (originally from Cleveland, OH), have trained in a variety of styles and traditions which has helped feed the aesthetic diversity of their projects. de la Reza graduated from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and Kope completed his early training at the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company where he became a company member and toured throughout the US and the world. Both directors share a love of passionate dancing fused with theatrical flavor. In 2000, Attack Theatre was joined by the acclaimed cellist and composer Dave Eggar as music director. Dave is a Grammy nominated artist who has performed and recorded with many artists including the Who, Josh Groban, and Evanescence.

Holbert, a 2008 graduate of the Studio Art program, will complete his MAT this year.  While a student in the Art Department, Miles was awarded Best of Show in the annual Kappa Pi Juried Student Exhibitions for the years 2007 and 2008; was the recipient of the 2007 Arts and Humanities Commission Award and, in 2009, was runner-up for inclusion in New American Paintings. His work has been included the 2007 High Gate Mansion Art and Humanities Exhibition, Fairmont, and the 2009 NY AXE Gallery exhibition in Palo Alto, California.  In 2008, Holbert’s work was published in FSU’s Whetstone journal.

Of the exhibition in the Brooks Gallery, Holbert says:

“My current body of work explores my concerns with the Marcellus Shale gas drilling going on in West Virginia.  These pieces are my sculptural interpretation of the landscape associated with the possibilities of water contamination due to improper drilling of the Marcellus Shale.  West Virginia has a dreadful history of interlopers coming in, raping and wrecking the land, and leaving the state in disarray.  Once, there were Brook Trout in every stream in West Virginia.  A hundred and fifty years ago, you could walk five minutes in any direction and fish a trout stream.  Now, you have to drive two or three hours to get to a trout stream that is pristine enough to sustain trout. 

Within the last few years, our streams have begun to recover from the damage caused over one hundred years ago, but now the concern is that careless hydro-fracturing may regress the environment to its previous, contaminated state.    An outdoor enthusiast and avid fisherman, my major concerns are water contamination and its cleanup.  I question the idea of jumping into drilling too quickly, and I explore what the effects could be if proper precautions are not taken.”

Following the Holbert exhibition will be Reflections: Homage to Dunkard Creek  (February 2-24), which will portray the massive kill-off of some 65,000 water creatures, now believed to have been triggered by Marcellus drilling waste-water, among other causes.  Dunkard Creek has once again become a persistent national story with new evidence tying the fish kill to Marcellus drilling wastewater, and several of the paintings in this exhibition have already received national exposure.

These two exhibitions will add Fairmont State to the growing artistic movement of exploring environmental issues through the visual and theatre arts which has become prominent in our region during the past year.

Brooks Gallery is open Mondays – Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  For special arrangements, please call or e-mail Curator Marian J Hollinger: (304) 367-4300; mhollinger@fairmontstate.edu

Jeremiah Ripley & Bruce McGlumphy in The Elephant Man

On Saturday, January 14 at 1:30 p.m., students from the Fairmont State University Theatre Department will compete in the final round of the Region 2 competition of the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.  The FSU production to be featured is Bernard Pomerance’s The Elephant Man, directed by Jeffrey Ingman

On Thursday, January 12, two performances of The Elephant Man, on a pay-what-you-can basis, will be presented in Wallman Hall Theatre at 2:00 in the afternoon, and at 7:30 the same evening.  All funds raised by these performances will be used to help offset the costs of participating in the festival.

The Region 2 festival will be held at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. There are seven regions for competition.  In order to compete, adjudicators are invited to attend performances and, in turn, invite a few chosen productions to compete in their regional festival.

The initial competition consists of between 40 to 50 productions, which is winnowed to 15 semi-finalists, and then, at the end, 8 finalists.  While FSU has competed on a regular basis and has always reached its regional pool of participants, this is its first time that the FSU Theatre Department has made it into the final pool, and only the second time in the past decade that a college or university from West Virginia has made it this far.

In addition, three FSU students have won meritorious awards: Matt Snyder and Cora Childress for lighting and costumes respectively for the FSU production of Cabaret, and Lakyn Arrick for her costumes for The Elephant Man. 

Also, six FSU students have been nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Award: Bruce McGlumphy, Jeremiah Ripley and Lillian Gaylord for The Elephant Man; Cecily Collins and Tyler Kovar for Cabaret, with Rennes Carbaugh, also from Cabaret, as alternate.

Musical selections will include

~~~ Maroon & White, arranged by Scott Green
~~~ Alma Mater, arranged by Green
~~~ Mission: Impossible Theme, arranged by Paul Lavender
~~~ Soul Bossa Nova, arranged by Paul Murtha
~~~ In the Stone, arranged by Adam Harkins
~~~ Cold Hearted, arranged by Raymond Rolle, II
~~~ Talkin’ out the Side of Your Neck, arranged by Rolle
~~~ Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With That, arranged by Tom Wallace
~~~ Dancing Machine, arranged by Tim Waters
~~~ Train, Train, arranged byWallace
~~~ Crazy Train, arranged by Murtha
~~~ Gonna Fly Now, arranged byVictor Lopez
~~~ Land of 1000 Dances, arranged by Wallace
~~~ Sing a Song, arranged by Rolle
~~~ Gimme Some Lovin’ , arranged by Wallace
~~~ Christmas Medley, arranged by Jay Dawson

There will be a dessert reception preceding the concert at 7:30 p.m.  Both reception and concert are free and open to the public.

(The following description is adapted from program notes by Dr. Spears).

The Collegiate Singers will open the concert with the Sussex Carol.  The origin of this carol is uncertain.  The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote down the carol in 1919, as he heard it sung by Harriet Verrall of Monk’s Gate, Sussex (thus the name).  Vaughan Williams used it in his Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and the previously obscure song has become a well-known Christmas standard.

Hector Berlioz

Hector Berlioz was one of the great French composers of the Romantic era.  His oratorio L’enfance du Christ tells the story of the holy family’s flight to Egypt to escape the massacre of newborn boys by Herod the Great.  In The Shepherds’ Farewell, the shepherds of Bethlehem bid adieu to the infant Jesus as the family departs.

Three Carols for Christmas is a lovely medley of three traditional European carols.  The first is the Czech carol “Hajej, nynej, Jezisku,” which is a lullaby to the baby Jesus.  In English it is often called the “Rocking Carol.”  Next is the “Conventry Carol” from England.  Like the Berlioz, its text refers to Herod’s massacre of the innocents.  Third is “The Star,” an Austrian carol.

Benjamin Britten

While crossing the Atlantic from America to Britain in 1942 (a rather unsafe journey at the time), the English composer Benjamin Britten brought along a copy of The English Galaxy of Shorter Poems.  From this book, he chose texts for A Ceremony of Carols.  The piece was completed during the five-week voyage, and it has become one of Britten’s best-loved compositions.  The text of This Little Babe is drawn from Robert Southwell’s poem “New Heaven, New War.”

The Collegiate Singers will close their opening set with the lyrical Christmas anthem Never a Brighter Star.  Composer Dan Forrest does a wonderful job evoking the imagery of the text with expressive harmonies and colorful key changes.

William Billings

The Chamber Choir will then return to the stage with Shiloh by the early American composer William Billings.  A tanner by trade, Billings was a largely self-taught musician who became a well-known singing school master.  His vigorous, rough and tumble music was meant to reflect the spirit of the American colonies, rather than the niceties of European style.  His music was very popular in the Revolutionary War era, and it has experienced a renaissance in recent times.

Guillaume Costeley was a prominent French composer of the late 16^th century.  He was court organist for Charles IX, and he also wrote about 100 chansons: lively, secular vocal pieces similar to the Italian madrigal.  Tonight’s performance of Allon, Gay Bergeres will use the 16^th-century French pronunciation of the text.  Because of differences that have arisen over time, the poem doesn’t rhyme correctly in modern French.

The program will shift to more recent times with Two Sacred Motets by Larry Christiansen.  The atmospheric lyricism of “A Child Is Born” creates a marked contrast with the angular rhythms and piquant harmonies of “Praise the Newborn Lord.”  They are followed by arrangements of two Christmas standards.  The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) was written by Mel Tormé and Robert Wells on a sweltering summer day in 1944.  Wells began jotting down wintry imagery as a way to cool off; when Tormé looked at what Wells had written, he was convinced there was a song in it.  Forty minutes later they had written what would become one of the most-performed Christmas songs of our time.  The Chamber Choir will finish with a fun, uptempo version of Up on the Housetop.

The Collegiate Singers will return to the stage with a set of three Renaissance carols.   In Spain, the phrase Riu, riu, chiu is the sound the nightingale makes; it is also a traditional shepherd’s call, which explains its relation to the shepherding imagery in this song.  Hanaq pachap kusikuynin is one of the earliest European-style compositions to be written in the New World.  It is in Quechua, the language of the Incas.  Gaudete was published in Piae Cantiones (1582), a Finnish collection of late medieval Latin songs.

Silver Bells was written for the 1951 film The Lemon Drop Kid, which starred Bob Hope.  Evans and Livingston originally titled the song “Tinkle Bells,” until Livingston’s wife pointed out that the word tinkle has more than one meaning.  Their solution was to change “tinkle” to “silver,” and the rest is history.

On Christmas Eve 1818, Father Joseph Mohr, assistant pastor of St. Nicholas Church, Oberndorf, Austria, brought some new lyrics he had written to Franz Gruber, the church’s choir director, and asked him to set them to music for guitar and voices.  Later that evening, Silent Night was performed for the first time at midnight Mass.  It has since become one of the most well-known Christmas carols in the world.

Finally, the Collegiate Singers will close the concert with the perennial Christmas favorite Jingle Bells.  There are several competing stories of the origin of the song, but it is very possible that it was actually written for a Thanksgiving celebration.

Numbers to be performed are as follows:
~~~ All Blues by Miles Davis.
~~~ Green Dolphin Street by Kaper / Washington.
~~~ Maiden Voyage by Herbie Hancock.
~~~ Blues for Alice by Charlie Parker.
~~~ 500 Miles High by Chick Corea.
~~~ Blessed Relief by Frank Zappa.

Arrangements are by director Patrick Joyce.

The Choro Band personnel are Paul Brutto, piano— Josh Chaido, drums & vibraphone— Cecil Lopez, saxophone— Rachel McIntire, saxophone— Michael Robinson,  drums & vibraphone—  Tristram Salisbury, bass.

The current production of Cabaret directed by Troy Snyder— now playing in FSU’s Wallman Hall Theatre— is fearless, audacious and more than a little disturbing.  As it should be.  Weimar Berlin during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the early 1930s was the most dangerous city in the world. It could corrupt your soul,  it could drive you insane,  it could get you killed.  It was the sin capitol of Europe, its Sodom and Gomorrah, staining the night sky with fire & brimstone—  an insomniac city where everything was on offer, restraint was obsolete, and the jazz was terrific.

Tyler Kovar

Not that Troy Snyder manages to bring the entirety of Weimer Berlin to Wallman Theatre— but he does manage to capture— uncannily— a small darkened corner of it— and the effect is unforgettable.

There is the set, for starters: brooding, black, Bauhausian,  instilling an undertone of foreboding into the desperate gaiety of the patrons.  The tables— to add to the Weimarian ambience— are populated in part by life-sized, painted cut-outs straight out of Beckmann, Dix and Grosz— while, to one side, an iron spiral staircase wreathed in cigarette smoke, rises— not up to heaven, as the song goes— but straight up from hell.  And the whole scene heightened and dramatized by the bold lighting effects of Matt Snyder; the insolent, smokey jazz of R.J.  Nestor & Crew, and Cora Childress‘s brazen costuming.

Cate Smith & Tyler Kovar

Cecily Collins

And at the heart of the action, galvanizing the unraveling swirl of dancers, is one Sally Bowles, the barely-holding-it-together, gin-soaked ‘heroine’ of the musical, played with ragged, unflagging energy by Cecily Collins.  And if Ms Collins’ style seemed a bit rough at first, it soon became clear that the raggedness was perfectly in keeping with the erratic, extreme behavior— veering from vulnerable to predatory— of Sally Bowles herself.  Whatever my misgivings, Ms Collins’ feral rendition of the title number-— pulling all her ragged edges into a climactic tour-de-force— dispelled all doubt.

Rennes Carbaugh & Cecily Collins

Jeremiah Ripley, Rennes Carbaugh, Jay Lindsay

Sally’s opposite, Clifford Bradshaw, is played by Rennes Carbaugh whose acting— notwithstanding a fine, strong voice— seemed similarly uncertain at first, almost wooden, in fact.  But this trait, too, soon revealed itself as properly intrinsic to the character of Bradshaw.  As a young American homosexual newly arrived in a large, European city unlike anything he could have known at home— who then, inexplicably and against all expectation, falls in love with a female prostitute and femme fatale, what else could the poor lad be but shell-shocked?  No wonder he seems a bit stiff in the joints.  And as the play progresses, with all of Berlin falling to pieces around them, Bradshaw’s stiffness seems more and more like steadiness and strength of character— a rare quality amid the general hysteria— and helps explain Sally’s growing adherence.

Rennes Carbaugh & Cecily Collins

Fran Kirk & John Fallon

The other love story playing out against the looming apocalypse is that of Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz, performed with touching pathos by Fran Kirk and John Fallon, both consummate veterans of the stage.  Their rendition of lonely landlady and fruit-seller on the verge of poverty and old age— hoping against all reason and experience for one last shot at love— provide almost the only measure of simple, unadorned humanity in the play.  As everyone else is swept up in a whirlwind of excess and abandon, Fraulein Schneider and Herr Schultz ask for nothing more than to spend their few remaining years quietly together.  It is little enough, and Herr Schultz is reassuring in his unshakeable confidence that the current tide of extremism will pass.  He has lived through such tides before, and outlasted them all.  “And if the Nazis come to power?”  asks Fraulein Schneider.  “You will be married to a Jew, but also a German,” he assures her.  “A German as much as anyone . . .”

The Kit Kat Girls & Boys

And meanwhile, in the cabaret, the music never seems to stop— with stellar moments galore, particularly the rousing, rip-the-walls-down rendition of “Money, Money” by Kovar and his hellbent-for-leather Girls & Boys, with Erin Harold‘s stunning choreography drawing excited shouts from the audience— and a chilling rendition of “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” by Brady Dunn who, as Kit Kat Boy Kurt, isolated in limelight midway up the staircase, reveals himself a True Aryan at heart.  And speaking of chilling, the portrayal of lady-of-the-evening Fraulein Kost, by Hannah Weakley, was a dark little gem of a performance: clipped cynicism in spike heels, alluring as an unsheathed dagger.

George Grosz

But there are changes afoot . . .  sinister rumblings of a distant storm and— nearer— disturbing signs and premonitions— harsh shouted slogans overheard in the streets, and jack-booted brownshirts lurking in doorways. —   The band grows weary, apprehensive— broken blue-notes sliding out of place— while in the faces of the patrons, cadavorous in the unnatural light, anxiety and exhaustion take their toll . . .

The current production of Cabaret is a strong dose of Weimarian decadence, exhilarating entertainment with vivacious singing, choreography and jazz , but it is not for the faint-hearted.  It is as close to historical reality as artistry will accommodate and the law will allow.  It’s not the Cabaret of Hollywood, but of pre-war Berlin: gritty, seamy, and sweaty— with swastikas closing in.  If you lack a strong stomach, then give it a miss.  But if you can stand a glimpse of the real thing, of the final curtain call before the Nazi apocalypse, then come on down to the Cabaret in Wallman Theatre.  It’ll be here for one more weekend, before the brownshirts show up in force and close it down for good.

CABARET continues in the Wallman Hall Theatre on the Fairmont State campus at 7:30 on Thurs, Fri & Sat (Nov 17, 18 & 19).

Stephen Phillips & Rennes Carbaugh

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The Jazz Ensemble will perform the “Don Hamilton Collection”, including selections by Josef Zawinul, Sammy Nestico, Robert Lowden, Charles Trenet, Lionel Richie, David Paich, Benny Goodman and Edgar Sampson.

The Percussion Ensemble will perform selections of Christmas music by Vince Guraldi, Lee Mendelson, Leroy Anderson, Philip Gregory and Chris Crockarell.

The program selections of the African Ensemble are yet to be announced (this post will be updated as new information becomes available).

Admission is free and open to the public.