Composer Philip Glass and his orchestra, the Philip Glass Ensemble, will kick off the Center for the Arts’ first season held in its newly-built home.

The Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech will open its first full season in its new home with a performance by a legendary American composer, end with a multimedia theater performance for children by an Italian troupe, and in between will host professional dance companies, experimental plays, a popular NPR host, a bluegrass festival and even a Pops performance by the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra.

Executive director Ruth Waalkes has said one of the goals of the new $100 million institution with its state-of-the-art 1,260-seat performance hall has been to complement, not duplicate, the programming that already exists in the Roanoke and New River valleys . Sure enough, the lineup of 21 acts sports little overlap with the Jefferson Center’s jazz offerings or the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre’s comedians and Broadway in Roanoke shows.

The acts are also chosen based on their potential to involve community members and create opportunities for educational programming, Waalkes said.

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Photo by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS | The Roanoke Times. The Science Museum of Western Virginia, on the fourth and fifth floors of Center in the Square, is still unveiling its exhibitions in preparation for the May 18 opening.

Aquariums, iPads and flat screen televisions. Chandeliers and sculpted ceilings. Floor tiles arranged to make the shape of a giant butterfly. A skylight with colored glass in irregular shapes that seems to match the late Dorothy Gillespie’s aluminum sculptures ascending toward it.

There’s no question that more than $27 million in renovations has transformed Center in the Square.

At a Tuesday morning news conference, Center President and General Manager Jim Sears talked about how the days are gone for good when all a visitor saw in Center’s atrium were two volunteers seated at a desk.

“This project was a great labor of love,” said David Bandy , president of Roanoke architecture firm Spectrum Design, which designed the building. Flourishes such as allowing the science museum’s new butterfly garden to rise through the roof had to be balanced with conservation of historical features to meet requirements for tax credits, he said.

Center has less than two weeks to go until its May 18 grand reopening, with a preview Grand Affair gala scheduled for Saturday. Though on schedule and on budget, the project’s hectic pace to put on finishing touches has become more frantic than ever.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Photo by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS | The Roanoke Times.
The newly renovated Center in the Square building features a rooftop deck with a restaurant space, a koi pond still being lined, the skylight for the butterfly exhibit, and a glass railed staircase to an upper deck with a view of downtown Roanoke.

Hat tip, Rob Arrington. I note that show spokeswoman Marilyn Jennings tells me that this traveling musical, starring Brian McKnight and Angie Stone, is launching its tour with this show in Roanoke.

Brian McKnight stars in Hinton Battle’s “Love Lies” coming to the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre on Sunday, March 31 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $27 and are available exclusively at the Roanoke Civic Center Box Office, online at HomeTownBankTix.com or charge-by-phone at 1-877-HTB-TIXNow (1-877-482-8496).

As three women, unaware of each other’s existence, arrive at the funeral of Harrison Brown, they quickly discover they’re ALL attending their fiancée’s funeral. Sparks fly and then explode as the three women relive their experiences with Brown on a journey that leaves them feeling stronger, empowered and more confident.

Hinton Battle, writer, director and producer of “Love Lies,” is an American actor, dancer, and dance instructor. He has won three Tony Awards, all in the category of Featured Actor in a Musical. He was the first to portray the Scarecrow in the stage version of The Wiz.

For more information please visit: www.HintonBattle.com

UPDATE 3/21: Organizer Amanda Agricola shared this schedule with me:

The majority of live performances will take place from 5:00-8:30.

5-10 Cherisse Gray, “White Choice”
6-6:30 HeJin Jang, “Migrant-self the Speed of a Door”
7- 8:00 Tif Robinette “Love me Tender”
7- 8:00 Mr. Thursday, “Strutt Stream”
7- 8:00 Olchar Lindsann, “untitled”
8- 8:30 Amanda Agricola, “Come Inside”

Susan Jamison and Matt Ames have visual works up

Sarah Ingel, Erica Buechman, and Annie Waldrop have video performances playing for the duration of the show.

From Sunday’s column:

A sketch for “Love Me Tender” by Tif Robinette

Roanoke artist Amanda Agricola has organized “Cycles~,”a performance art and video exhibition that focuses on “cyclical occurrences in femininity.”

“I had a couple of women come to me with ideas for performances and I had also been thinking about planning an event in conjunction with Women’s History Month, so I decided that it would be a good occasion to have a performance exhibition,” she wrote in a Facebook message.

Participating artists include Matt Ames, Erica Buechner, Warren Fry, Cherisse Gray, Sarah Ingel, HeJin Jan, Susan Jamison, Olchar Lindsann, Tif Robinette and Annie Waldrop, with music by Mateo Marquez Marquez. Admission is free. Performances contain adult subject matter.

Agricola and Marquez previously organized “Exclamations!” a cutting-edge series of exhibitions that debuted at the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival last year and received a Perry F. Kendig Award from the now-defunct Arts Council of the Blue Ridge.

“Cycles~” takes place 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday in the former Pamela Jean Gallery at 115 Salem Ave S.E. in Roanoke. For more information, visit http://c-y-c-l-e-s.net/ or the “Cycles~” event page on Facebook.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

From Sunday’s column:

Courtesy of Roanoke City Public Schools. Fourth-grader Kielil Cook takes part in Pedro Szalay’s “Dance Espanol” program at Morningside Elementary School.

Pedro Szalay’s good news could have meant bad news for Roanoke City Public Schools.

For six years, Szalay worked part time as artistic director for Southwest Virginia Ballet in Salem. For four years, he also taught “Minds in Motion,” a Richmond Ballet outreach program, to fourth-graders in Roanoke’s elementary schools.

Last year, Southwest Virginia Ballet hired Szalay full time. That meant he no longer would be able to represent the Richmond Ballet.

He proposed an alternate program, “Dance Espanol,” that would pick up where “Minds in Motion” left off, and Superintendent Rita Bishop approved — thereby preserving his role in teaching city students.

“Pedro is a true believer in our children,” Bishop said in a statement. “He really cares about all of our students and I can’t thank him enough for all of his hard work, teaching both Spanish and dance. He is the definition of a true community partner and our students absolutely adore him.”

“Minds in Motion” incorporated movement into lessons about topics students need to know for the Virginia Standards of Learning tests. “Dance Espanol,” funded by the school system for $35,000, does the same, and Szalay, a Venezuela native, also works in lessons in basic Spanish. “We don’t write, but we say it,” Szalay said.

Click here to read the rest of the column.

UPDATE 5/22: Did Bledsoe’s dance invite to Kunis inspire this spoof by The Onion? It certainly seems possible.

UPDATE 5/16: Click here to read  today’s story in which I interviewed Bledsoe about her venture. An excerpt follows:

Hollins University senior Kirsten Bledsoe recorded a video asking actress Mila Kunis to be her date to the school’s Cotillion dance.

“I kind of did it on a whim,” thinking the request would be funny, she said. After all, Kunis (“That ’70s Show,” “Black Swan”) recently told interviewer Chris Stark she says “Yes” to anything, and when he tried to ask her out, she never actually said “No.” Besides, Bledsoe’s been a fan of the actress for many years, and they share a love of Blue Moon beer.

The 21-year-old film major from Arlington posted the video to YouTube on March 10, not expecting it to go viral.

ORIGINAL POST: Here’s an interesting cultural news tip we’ve received. NOTE: This video contains adult language.

Tipster Charlsie Niemiec writes:

Hollins University senior Kirsten Bledsoe has been featured on the Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, and Buzzfeed in the last 24 hours for asking celebrity Mila Kunis to the end of the year Hollins Cotillion. Kirsten is a lesbian student who is speaking out on LGBTQ issues in hopes that Mila will attend as her date!

The Daily Beast writes:

Prompted by the recent viral video of BBC Radio reporter Chris Stark’s unconventional interview with Kunis last week, in which Kunis joked that she never turns down a date, Bledsoe figured she had nothing to lose. “Why not make a video asking her to my last school dance?” she told The Daily Beast, mentioning that she “was appalled” that Stark had never heard of Blue Moon beer.

Buzzfeed points out that this tactic (asking Kunis out via YouTube) has worked before, for a Marine serving in Afghanistan.

From my Inbox to you:

MARGINAL ARTS FESTIVAL RETURNS FOR 2013 – MAR 25- 30

The regions only contemporary art festival is back for its sixth year and it is still as out of place in Roanoke as a rubber chicken at a gun show! Performance art, vaudeville, film screenings, absurdist theater, curated exhibitions in ephemeral spaces, absurdist carnival, a parade full of artist-built floats, giant paper mache heads and art on wheels—everything the festival organizers claim is normally excluded from Roanoke’s art scene.

Workshops, demonstrations and lectures begin March 25 and festivities proper will begin on Thursday, March 28^th  with the final festival event ending around 11pm, March 30th.

Education focused on making contemporary art more accessible will be a large component of this year’s festival:

Lectures, master classes, and hands-on workshops will take place at 16 West Marketplace on Church Street, and Community High School on Campbell Avenue, as well as a few other locations in downtown Roanoke. This “Lyceé Marginal” will include a lecture by curator Brian Sieveking on how the popularity of wrestler Sputnik Monroe in the 1950’s led to desegregation in the South. Avant-garde historian and performer Olchar E. Lindsann will be giving a lecture on the history of the Readymade from 1830 to 1930. Virginia Tech and Hollins drawing students will work together to complete a collaborative drawing mural at 16 West Marketplace early festival week, while silkscreen printing workshops and food preparation demonstations will be among the other educational offering provided by the Lyceé Marginal. Read more »

Courtesy Patrick Kennerly. The cast of Showtimers’ “A Lesson Before Dying” (l-r): : James Wise, Jr. (Grant), Tim Kennard (Deputy Paul), William Penn (Rev. Ambrose), Barbara Sanders (Emma Glenn), and Mike Johnson (Jefferson).

Thousands in the Roanoke Valley, many of them schoolchildren, read Ernest J. Gaines’ tragic novel of racism and injustice, “A Lesson Before Dying,” in early 2010 as part of The Big Read, a community reading effort led by Roanoke Valley Reads.

Starting Wednesday, Showtimers Community Theatre will bring the novel to life on stage in honor of Black History Month — the first time the 62-year-old theater has put on a play for the observance, said show director Patrick Kennerly.

The play is one of several Black History Month events happening this month in Roanoke and at Virginia Tech.

Kennerly took part in a reading of the theater adaptation of “A Lesson Before Dying” at Studio Roanoke during The Big Read. “I just fell in love with the play. You can’t really watch that play without being affected by it,” he said.

So last summer Kennerly — a veteran of many past Showtimers’ productions — suggested the play to the Showtimers board. It will be the theater’s season’s opener for 2013.

Adapted by Romulus Linney, the play closely follows Gaines’ story of a poor black man falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to die, and rival mentors — a minister and a schoolteacher — who influence how he will live out his remaining days.

Burton Center for Arts and Technology engineering teacher Mike Johnson plays the condemned man, Jefferson; Roanoke jazz musician William Penn portrays the Rev. Moses Ambrose; and James Wise Jr. has the lead role as Grant Wiggins, a teacher in a segregated school for black students.

“This is the first play I’ve done that’s been a major drama,” Penn said. “I love the story. All the characters have a lot to say.”

From my Inbox to you:

Watch Artist and Activist Ai Weiwei's Muse is His Conscience on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, PREMIERES ON INDEPENDENT LENS, ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2013 ON PBS

Award-winning film offers a fascinating up-close look at the renowned Chinese artist and dissident and his ongoing battle with the Chinese government

“Ms. Klayman has pulled off an impressive coup. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry provides a vivid primer on Mr. Ai’s art; on his days as an art student and artist in New York; on his social and political provocations. Ai’s is a special kind of courage, and it impels him to act with special agility in a brave new world of his own making, where little tweets can challenge big lies and a blog post can echo like thunder.” Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Named by “ArtReview as the most powerful artist in the world, Ai Weiwei is China’s most celebrated contemporary artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. In April 2011, when Ai disappeared into police custody for three months, he quickly became China’s most famous missing person, having first risen to international prominence in 2008 after helping design Beijing’s iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium — and then publicly denouncing the Games as party propaganda. Since then, Ai Weiwei’s critiques of China’s repressive regime have ranged from playful photographs of his raised middle finger in front of Tiananmen Square to searing memorials to the more than 5,000 schoolchildren who died in shoddy government construction in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Against a backdrop of strict censorship, Ai has become a kind of Internet champion, using his blog and Twitter stream to organize, inform, and inspire his followers, becoming an underground hero to millions of Chinese citizens. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry , premieres on the award-winning series Independent Lens , hosted by Stanley Tucci, on Monday, February 25, 2013 at 10 PM ET (check local listings). Read more »

From Sunday’s column:

“The Mighty Josh” by Kadir Nelson, part of the traveling exhibition “We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” opening Saturday at Piedmont Arts in Martinsville.

Piedmont Arts at 215 Starling Ave. in Martinsville will celebrate Black History Month in February with an arts exhibition and a one-man play.

“We Are The Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” a collection of 33 paintings and 13 sketches that artist and author Kadir Nelson created for a children’s book of the same name, opens Saturday and will remain on display through March 30.

Nelson’s paintings involved years of research, studying old photographs, interviewing former Negro League players and collecting sports equipment and uniforms.

He photographed himself wearing the uniforms in pursuit of creating accurate depictions. His art and words tell the story of how athletes such as Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige and Willie Mays and the owners of the clubs they belonged to battled institutionalized racism and segregation to pursue their love of baseball.

Nelson’s book won the 2009 Coretta Scott King Book Award and was named one of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2008 by The New York Times.

In conjunction with “We Are the Ship,” Piedmont Arts will showcase airbrush paintings of vintage scenes from black American life by Axton artist Rupe Dalton.

Furthering the exploration of Negro League history, the art center will present “A Game Apart: Mike Wiley As Jackie Robinson” at 7 p.m. Feb. 11.

Roanoke native, playwright and actor Wiley, a 1991 Patrick Henry High School graduate who teaches at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will bring the legendary ballplayer to life in the play, and show the stark conditions he faced as a star on the field who was treated like a second-class citizen everywhere else.

Admission to “We Are the Ship” is free. Admission to “A Game Apart” is $15, students $10. For more information call 276-632-3221 or visit piedmontarts.org.