Arts

The Church Hill Theatre Announces Green Room Gang Directors

February 21, 2020 by Church Hill Theatre Leave a Comment

The Church Hill Theatre, Inc (CHT) is pleased to announce the directors for their 2020 Green Room Gang (GRG) summer theatre camp program. Iz Clemens will be returning as the director of GRG Sr. for students entering grades 6 to 12. Returning for her fifteenth year, Becca VanAken will direct GRG Jr. for students entering grades 1 to 5. The GRG, Sr. camp will be on Mondays – Thursday 9:00-3:00 starting June 22 and the GRG, Jr. camp will meet Mondays-Thursdays 9:00-12:00 starting June 24.

CHT is currently looking for two college students to fill internship positions for the GRG camps. These positions are paid internships. Responsibilities include assisting the GRG Directors in all aspects of the theatrical experience including working with the children, coordinating props and costumes and Stage Management responsibilities for the run of the productions. Hours are 8:30-3:30 Monday thru Thursday starting June 22 and running until July 29. A generous stipend is included. These internships offer college students an opportunity to gain valuable theatrical experience in a friendly community theatre while also encouraging young people to enjoy the magic of live theatre. Further details and an application form may be obtained by contacting the Church Hill Theatre office at 410-556-6003.

Continuing this year, CHT is also offering volunteer apprenticeships for High School students. Applicants must be 16 years old, at least a rising junior in HS and have a basic understanding of technical theatre. Responsibilities will include working approximately 8-10 hours a week with the producer, directors and technical director in the capacity of instruction and technical apprentices. Applicants must be available to work on Fridays and to help run the productions, which are scheduled for July 23, 24, and 25, 2020.

Please contact Church Hill Theatre at 410-556-6003 during office hours, Tuesday thru Friday 11:00-4:00 for further information and an application forms.

Allegra! Women’s Chorus: Celebrating Women in Song

February 21, 2020 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

Allegra!, a prestigious 16-voice women’s ensemble, will be presenting its second annual performance celebrating National Women’s Month; Friday, March 6, 7:00 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 315 Goldsborough Street in Easton. The performance is free to attend, all are welcome. The program features chant from 12th century Benedictine nun, Hildegard of Bingen, to the poetry of Maya Angelou and music by composers Michael John Trotta, Edvard Grieg, Rosephayne Powell, and Susan LaBarr. Also included is a 2016 work by Canadian composer Sarah Quartel, Sanctum, a captivating setting of four movements of the Requiem text, inspired by the landscape of the west coast of Canada. Each movement depicts an aspect of Vancouver Island (the water, mountains, wind, and sky), exploring landscape as a place of healing and sanctuary. Allegra! will be collaborating with Continuum Dance Company in April to perform another Quartel piece, Snow Angel.

Allegra! was formed in the spring of 2019, is directed by Amy Morgan, and is a program of Allegro Academy and is funded in part by the Maryland State and Talbot County Arts Councils. The mission of Allegro Academy is to offer exceptional music education and performance experiences to the greater Talbot County Area and to make these offerings affordable to all. For more information please visit www.allegroacademyeaston.com or call 410-603-8361.

The Spirit of Harriet Tubman at Todd Performing Arts Center

February 20, 2020 by Steve Parks Leave a Comment

At 4-foot-10, Harriet Tubman was a giant in spirit, courage, and heroism in the eyes of a little girl in Canada, where so many slaves Tubman rescued found north-of-the-border freedom.

Leslie McCurdy, a native of Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, didn’t have many historic-figure role models—certainly not many who looked like her. Not until fifth-grade when she first read about Tubman, a runaway slave from Dorchester County who returned south repeatedly to rescue dozens—eventually hundreds—from bondage.

Comparisons to Moses are not clichés. Tubman was the real deal.

“It made such an impression on me—my school was mostly white—that I found reasons on every grade level to do something about Harriet Tubman: Draw a picture, give an oral report, write a term paper,” McCurdy recalls. Following college, she turned to acting after an injury derailed her first artistic ambition—dance. McCurdy wrote a one-woman play, “The Spirit of Harriet Tubman,” which she performs live at Chesapeake College’s Todd Performing Arts Center Saturday evening, Feb. 21.
Taller in physical stature, McCurdy has portrayed Tubman on stage for 23 years, including about four years ago on the Wye Mills campus. “I guess they liked me well enough to invite me back,” she says modestly.

With a little prodding, McCurdy admits she’s often been “overwhelmed by the way people find it such a powerful and inspirational example of one person’s spirit and heroism.”

McCurdy’s source material—she owns the title role, of course—wasn’t easy to come by. “My play is based on words that are said to be her own,” McCurdy says. As a child field slave, Tubman never had the opportunity to learn reading or writing, unlike fellow slave Frederick Douglass, who, transferred from Talbot County to Baltimore as a youngster, became an abolitionist author, orator, and spokesman for enslaved and freed African-Americans.

Life-sized statues of Tubman and Douglass were unveiled at the State House in Annapolis at the start of the 2020 General Assembly session this month.
The statues were news to McCurdy when interviewed by phone on the road before her Chesapeake College show this weekend. But she has explored other local sites from Tubman’s life as a slave as well as others in Underground Railroad “depots” in Canada. At first, Tubman and those she rescued just needed to make it north of the Mason-Dixon Line. But renewed enforcement of the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act, rewarding the return of runaway slaves, lengthened the final Underground Railroad destination all the way to St. Catherine’s, Ontario, and other Canadian border towns.

“In some ways, Harriet was better known in Canada than in the States,” McCurdy says, citing Tubman’s image on the Canada $10 bill. Her picture was to replace President Andrew Jackson’s this year on the U.S. $20 bill. However, President Trump nixed that idea. Sooner or later, his unilateral decision likely will be overturned. But that’s another story.

In addition to “The Spirit of Harriet Tubman,” McCurdy also performs an abridged version for younger audiences—grades K-through-2.
Tubman isn’t the only black heroine McCurdy celebrates in live performance. She also does a one-woman show about another Maryland native, Billie Holiday, who she describes as a “race woman and artist.”

“People focus on her drug addiction,” says McCurdy. “But she was also a woman of conviction for just causes.” Or opposition to terribly unjust causes, such as lynching. Holiday ignored those who discouraged her from performing the song, “Strange Fruit,” which refers to black bodies hanging from trees that also produce apples, for instance, or, particularly in the South, peaches.

McCurdy personally met Rosa Parks, the Alabama woman who refused to surrender her seat on a municipal bus to a white passenger. Parks (no known relation to this writer) is among those McCurdy honors in her show, “Things My Fore-Sisters Said.” She once accompanied Parks to Underground Railroad sites in Canada. Now, other stops along the “railroad” are traced in Dorchester and Caroline counties, plus parts of Delaware.

McCurdy recalls visiting the country store in Bucktown, near Cambridge, where slave-girl Tubman was assaulted by a white man who cracked her skull with a hurled stone. The recent movie release “Harriet,” to which McCurdy takes some exception, depicts her injury as a source of clairvoyance. “That diminishes her intelligence and smarts,” McCurdy says, in eluding those who’d capture her and fellow refugees.

It may be easier to dismiss Billie Holiday’s anti-Jim Crow politics, owing to drug/alcohol abuse, or even Rosa Parks’ impertinence in the eyes of unrepentant segregationists. But Tubman, who lived to 90 or 91—slaves were robbed even of recorded birthdates—led Union soldiers to free slaves in Confederate states and, later, helped the aged and advocated women’s suffrage.

Tubman was and remained an unapproachable savior on the right side of history.

Take it from Leslie McCurdy: “Harriet’s been my hero since I was ten years old.”

Happy Black History Month. McCurdy does two shows a week each February. The dedicated month could hardly be better celebrated.

The Spirit of Harriet Tubman

Todd Performing Arts Center, Chesapeake College, Wye Mills Friday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m. Tickets: $20, $10 for children 10 and younger 410-827-5867

Steve Parks is a retired journalist and theater critic now living in Easton.

For All Seasons Heart & Music to Feature a Special 10-Year Tribute

February 20, 2020 by For All Seasons, Inc. Leave a Comment

For All Seasons Behavioral Health and Rape Crisis Center presents the 10th Annual Heart & Music on Thursday, March 5 through Sunday, March 8, at the Oxford Community Center in Oxford. This year, Director Ed Langrell and Music Director Ellen Barry Grunden return with a special “10-Year Tribute,” showcasing such popular shows as Rent, Dear Evan Hansen, Jersey Boys, and Spamalot. The best-of-the-best songs featured over the last 10 years of the performance include selections from the Beatles, James Taylor, Neil Diamond, Pharrell, Alicia Keys, and Sonny and Cher. Heart & Music is produced by Beth Anne Langrell and Lisa Roth, with special guests from Crashbox Theatre Troupe.

Beth Anne Langrell, CEO of For All Seasons and co-founder of Heart & Music with her husband Ed Langrell, comments, “We are thrilled to be celebrating 10 years of the show which has been our most successful fundraiser for the agency. This year we bring back some of our favorite numbers from years past. The show promises not to disappoint, showcasing some of the Mid Shore’s finest musical talent.”

The cast of For All Seasons Heart & Music.

Local talent featured in the show includes Lisa Roth, Mike Sousa, Beth Anne Langrell, Ed Langrell, Gail Aveson, Heather Scott, Malley Hester, Becca Van Aken, Matt Fokker, Bill Gross, Shelby Swann, Zack Schlag, Ricky Vitanovec, Marcia Gilliam, Maureen Curtin, Jane Copple, Joe Tyler, and Erinne Lewis.

Join the cast for a great show filled with talent and entertainment at the opening night gala on Thursday, March 5 at 6 p.m. Tickets for the gala start at $150 and include cocktails and a gourmet dinner. Weekend performances are Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7 at 8 p.m. and a Sunday matinee on March 8 at 2 p.m. with tickets starting at $25 for adults and $10 for students.

To reserve seats, call 410-820-7007 or visit www.heartmusic.eventbrite.com.

Heart & Music benefits For All Seasons, the only non-profit Behavioral Health and Rape Crisis Center serving the five counties of Maryland’s Mid-Shore. To learn more about their services and to get involved, visit www.forallseasonsinc.org.

Director of the Harriet Tubman Museum to Speak at Easton Library

February 17, 2020 by Spy Desk Leave a Comment

In March, the Friends of the Talbot County Free Library and the Chesapeake Film Festival will present “Great Dames,” a film series in honor of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America. All films are free and open to the public and will screen at the Easton Branch Library.

On Monday, March 2, “Great Dames” will present the film “Harriet.” In addition to the film, the director of the Harriet Tubman Museum, Donald Pinder, will be available afterward to speak about Harriet Tubman and the museum. Pinder has been with the museum for the past nine years and lives in the district closest to where Harriet Tubman lived. He’s a lifetime resident of Dorchester County and is expert in self-guided tours about Harriet Tubman which he explains to museum visitors so they can visit the ten most important sites while they are in the area.

“Harriet” was recently released and is a feature film that celebrates one of America’s greatest heroes, Harriet Tubman, whose courage and ingenuity helped free hundreds of slaves. Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, “Harriet” tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

PG-13, 125 minutes. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library

Academy Art Museum Announces March Events

February 16, 2020 by Academy Art Museum Leave a Comment

Gamelatron

EXHIBITIONS

The following Academy Art Museum exhibitions are sponsored by the Talbot County Arts Council, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Star Democrat. Open daily, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Gamelatron @ AAM: Bodyphones
Front Yard Through Summer 2020
The Academy Art Museum presents Bodyphones, an immersive installation by Aaron Taylor Kuffner (1975). Kuffner is an American conceptual artist, based in New York. The artwork’s goal is to expand the legacy and creative cultural power of the traditional Indonesian gamelan through innovation.

LECTURES

Kittredge-Wilson Lecture
March 27, 2020, 6 p.m.
Steve Ziger, Partner, Ziger/Snead of Baltimore, MD Lecture Architecture for the Arts
Cost: $24 Members; $29 Non-Members

Edgar Degas, The Curtain, c. 1880.

Steve Ziger is a partner at the Top-50 US Architects firm of Ziger/Snead of Baltimore, MD, which serves as the architect for the AAM’s new Courtyard Entrance and Gallery Renovations. With dedication to a distilled design approach, a focus on relationships, and active community engagement, the firm’s mission that great design can have a positive impact on our quality of life has resulted in transformative projects for many non-profits and institutions in Baltimore and beyond. He is the only Baltimore-based architect to be elevated to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows.

ARTS EXPRESS TRIPS
National Gallery of Art
Degas at the Opéra & Painting from Nature: European Landscape Sketches, 1770–1870
March 24, 2020
Cost: $60 Members; $72 Non-Members
Celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Opéra’s founding, Degas at the Opéra will present approximately 100 of the artist’s best-known and beloved works in a range of media, including paintings, pastels, drawings, prints, and sculpture. Painting from Nature: European Landscape Sketches, 1770–1870 includes such intrepid artists such as Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, John Constable, Simon Denis, Jules Coignet, and André Giroux— highly skilled at quickly capturing effects of light and atmosphere.

Steve Walker

SPECIAL EVENTS

Open MIC – Second Wednesday Each Month
March 11 – Because
FREE. Contact Ray Remesch at RayRemesch@gmail.com for additional information.

ADULT CLASSES

Photo Shoot Adventures
Instructors: Maire McArdle and Steve Walker
4 weeks: March 7-28
Saturdays, 2-4:30 p.m.

Basic Drawing: The Fundamentals
Instructor: Katie Cassidy wkmcgarry@verizon.net
4 weeks, March 7 – March 28

Still Life Painting Workshop
Instructor: Bernard Dellario bernie.dellario@gmail.com
Weekend workshop: March 14 – March 15
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Bernard Dellario

Building Blocks of the Impressionist Landscape — One Element Each Week
Instructor: Diane DuBois Mullaly www.dianeduboismullaly.com
6 weeks: March 19 – April 30 (no class April 9)
Thursdays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Realism to Abstraction
Instructor: Sheryl Southwick
4 weeks: March 3 – 24
Tuesdays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

The Naturalist’s Notebook; Spring Botanicals
Instructor: Maggii Sarfaty
4 weeks: March 4 – March 25
Wednesdays, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Printmaking Workshop: The Painterly Print
Instructor: Rosemary Cooley
3-day workshop: March 13, 14 and 15
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Maggii Sarfaty

Fundamentals of Photography: Tame Your Camera and Beyond Digital
Instructor: Sahm Doherty-Sefton
dohertysefton@aol.com www.Sahmdohertysefton.com
3 Weeks: March 11, 18, 25
Wednesdays, 6 – 8 p.m.

CHILDREN’S CLASSES

Spring After-School Art Club
Grades 1 through 4
Instructor: Susan Horsey
Seven Fridays: March 20–May 15 (no class on April 10), 3:30–4:30 p.m.
Cost: $105 Members, $115 Non-Members
The Art Club offers fun and engaging projects for children of all skill levels. Exploration of individual ideas and creativity is encouraged. The instructor will focus on a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, 3-D wire construction, collage, pastels, and graphite, while also teaching stylistic secrets of famous artists.

PERFORMING ARTS CLASSES

Piano & Guitar Lessons
Instructor: Raymond Remesch
Contact Instructor for further information at (410) 829-0335 or rayremesch@gmail.com.

Voice Lessons
Instructor: Georgiann Gibson
Contact instructor for Information at (410) 829-2525 or georgiann@atlanticbb.net.

Ballroom and Latin Dance
Instructor: Amanda Showell
Contact instructor for information at (302) 377-3088 or visit dancingontheshore.com.

For additional information, visit academyartmuseum.org or call the Museum at 410-822-2787.

Call for Artists: WAF Announces Applications Now Open for Local Color 2020

February 10, 2020 by Working Artists Forum (WAF) Leave a Comment

The Local Color Art Show and Sale, held July 17-19, is a prestigious annual art show and sale during Plein Air Easton, sponsored by the Working Artists Forum (WAF), PAE and the Avalon Foundation. Artists juried into the show must be exclusively from the Delmarva Peninsula, or a WAF member, and whose art features studio-finished and plein air paintings of two dimensional art in acrylic, watercolor, oil or pastel. The show is held in the Crystal Ballroom of the historic Tidewater Inn, 101 E. Dover Street, Easton. Artists who have been juried into the 2020 Plein Air Easton Competition are not eligible to apply. All applicants must enter online between February 8 – March 20, 2020. Artists juried into the show will be announced in April. The Prospectus, Application and Payment links are available at the WAF website. https://www.workingartistsforum.com/local-color.html

Aretha Franklin Fans Must See Amazing Grace Feb 10

February 9, 2020 by Chesapeake Film Festival

Next up in the Great Dames Series is Amazing Grace, a Concert by Aretha Franklin.

The Friends of the Talbot County Free Library and the Chesapeake Film Festival continue “Great Dames,” a film series in honor of the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America. All films are free and open to the public and will screen at the Easton Branch Library.

Gov. Larry Hogan has also declared 2020 the Year of the Woman in Maryland because 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which awarded women the right to vote. “Our state’s history has been shaped by extraordinary women leaders, and our administration remains committed to empowering and advocating for women in Maryland,” Hogan said. (WBAL TV 11, December 12, 2019).

Amazing Grace
Monday, Feb. 10, 6:00 p.m.

You won’t want to miss a powerful musical documentary revolving around a 1972 Aretha Franklin concert. Amazing Grace is a 2018 concert film directed by Sydney Pollack and later realized by producer Alan Elliott. The film has received critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes website’s critical consensus reads, “Brilliantly capturing a remarkable performer near the peak of her prodigious power, Amazing Grace is a thrilling must-watch documentary for Aretha Franklin fans.”

Rated G, 89 minutes. Sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

This exceptional film about the tremendous contribution of a woman in our society is free; no reservations are required, and seating is first come, first serve. For more information, please visit chesapeakefilmfestival.com or tcfl.org/Calendar/.

The Chesapeake Film Festival is generously supported by the Maryland Film Office, Maryland State Arts Council, Talbot County Arts Council, Talbot County Department of Tourism, Artistic Insights Fund, Shared Earth Foundation, Exelon, and The Ravenal Foundation.

Sparky & Rhonda Rucker: 3 Shows on the Shore Feb 8-15

February 8, 2020 by Carpe Diem Arts

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker

Sparky and Rhonda Rucker “Let Freedom Ring!” Celebrating Black History Month.

The movements for justice have produced some of our most inspiring songs and stories. They trace the nation’s struggles from slavery and the Underground Railroad through the battles for women’s suffrage and workers’ rights into the civil rights movement. Sparky Rucker got his start in folk music during the movement, marching shoulder-to-shoulder with SNCC Freedom Singers Matthew and Marshall Jones and playing freedom songs at rallies alongside such luminaries as Pete Seeger, Bernice Reagon and Guy Carawan.

Internationally recognized as a leading folklorist, musician, historian, storyteller, and author, Sparky accompanies himself with finger-style picking and bottleneck blues guitar, banjo, and spoons. Rhonda is a children’s author, storyteller, songwriter and musician: blues-style harmonica, piano, old-time banjo, and bones.

Sparky and Rhonda have performed at the Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and on NPR’s On Point, Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and Morning Edition.

www.SparkyandRhonda.com

“Sparky Rucker is unique! He’ll make you glad to be alive and struggling.” ~ Pete Seeger

Saturday, February 8, 8:00pm. The Mainstay: 5753 Main Street, Rock Hall, MD

$20 advance/ $25 at the door

Tuesday, February 11, 12:15-1:00pm. Brookletts Senior Center: 400 Brookletts Ave., Easton, MD

Presented by Carpe Diem Arts with support from the Talbot County Arts Council, Maryland State Arts Council, Dock Street Foundation, Edgewood Fund of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, Upper Shore Aging, and individual donors

Saturday, February 15, 11:00am-12:00pm. Easton Library: 100 W. Dover St., Easton, MD

Presented as part of the Fire & Ice Festival – with support from Friends of Talbot County Free Libraries and from the Talbot County Arts Council with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council

NOTE: Feb 11 & Feb 15 programs are free and open to the public.

Free Watercolor Instructional Video Series at St. Michaels Library

February 6, 2020 by St. Michaels Art League

The St. Michaels Art League and the St. Michaels Branch of the Talbot County Free Library are pleased to present a free instructional video series by the popular, award winning watercolorist Eric Wiegardt.

Eric Wiegardt is known for his very loose style and has taught all over the world. This instructional series breaks down his successful techniques in six sections: “Connecting Shapes,” “Mixing Color,”“Using Color in Shadows,” “Landscape Theory,”“Using Outside Edge Shapes,”and ”Area of Dominance.” The videos will be shown on Thursdays from 2-4pm, February 6, 13, 20 and 27.

These courses are FREE and open to everyone. No previous experience necessary and registration is not required. Bring your own supplies and paint along or just observe. For more information contact Camille Woodbury at camille@tilmac.com.

This program is funded in part by a grant from the Talbot County Arts Council with revenue provided by the Maryland State Arts Council. For more information about the St. Michaels Art League visit smartleague.org.

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