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Coming to the Hayes Center in April

Compiled by Kathleen McFadden

Even though the Blowing Rock Stage Company doesn’t kick off its performance season until May, things are hopping at the Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock during April. The Hayes Center is welcoming audiences most nights this month, with an astonishingly eclectic lineup of performances. Like opera? You’re in luck. Comedy? Yep. Family entertainment? No problem. Music? You bet.

The Hayes Center is located at 152 Jamie Fort Road off Highway 321. For tickets to Hayes Center events, call the box office at 828-295-0112 or click to www.HayesCenter.org.

Street Scene—April 3 to 6

In Street Scene, the second annual presentation of ASU Opera at the Hayes Center, in conjunction with Blowing Rock Stage Company, the music school takes on Kurt Weill’s foray into what he called “new musical theater,” in which the German composer enlisted poet Langston Hughes to help him turn Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer-winning play of the same name into what would become a landmark musical.

Set on the doorstep of a housing estate on the East Side of New York on one hot spring day in 1946, the story deals with the ordinary squabbles and gossip of the neighbors, but the mounting tensions between the irritable characters eventually build into a tragedy of epic proportions. For his work, Weill was awarded the very first Tony Award for Best Original Score in 1947.

Performance times for Street Scene are Thursday through Saturday, April 3 to 5, at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 6, at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $18 for adults and $9 for students.

Want To Go?

Dates: Thursday to Sunday, April 3 to 6
Times: 8:00 p.m. Thursday to Saturday/2:00 p.m. Sunday
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $18 adults/$9 students

Jazz Ensemble I & II—April 9

Appalachian State University’s Hayes School of Music presents Jazz Ensemble I and Jazz Ensemble II for an evening of big band jazz, swing and ballads on Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. Todd Wright leads Jazz Ensemble I, and Rod Berry leads Jazz Ensemble II.

Tickets are $5 and will be available at the door on the evening of the performance.

Want To Go?

Date: Wednesday, April 9
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $5

The Cashore Marionettes—April 11

The internationally acclaimed Cashore Marionettes, with their uncommon artistry, grace and refinement of movement, redefine the art of puppetry. Award-winning artist Joseph Cashore creates and manipulates these amazingly lifelike marionettes in the latest work called Simple Gifts, a series of touching character portrayals and scenes from everyday life set to a succession of stunning original and classical music, including Vivaldi, Strauss, Beethoven and Copland.

The original vignettes in Simple Gifts celebrate life and explore a range of emotions, from comic to tragic, with characters and actions that are uncannily convincing and engaging. The performance is recommended for adults and children ages 8 and older.

Simple Gifts plays for one night only on Friday, April 11, at 7:30. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for students.

Want To Go?

Date: Friday, April 11
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $20 adults/$15 students

Fire on the Rock Chef's Challenge—April 12 and 13

As part of the Blue Ridge Food and Wine Festival, the Hayes Center hosts the Fire on the Rock Chef’s Challenge on Saturday and Sunday, April 12 and 13.

Fire on the Rock is a battle of the area’s best chefs who will duke it out in an Iron Chef-style competition. Each team will receive a secret ingredient that they must use in their culinary creations.

Saturday features three competitions: at 10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Sunday features two competitions: at 12:00 and 2:00 p.m.

Tickets are $10 for the day, giving you admission to all battles on that day.

Want To Go?

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, April 12 and 13
Time: 10:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. Saturday/12:00 and 2:00 p.m. Sunday
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $10

Wine, Women & Sinatra—April 12

Also in conjunction with the Blue Ridge Food and Wine Festival, the Hayes Center presents an evening of great jazz celebrating Frank Sinatra on Saturday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. Virtuoso saxophonist Todd Wright performs.

As both an educator at ASU and a performer, Wright has been the face of jazz in the High Country for nearly 20 years. He has been recognized as one of the finest performers in the Southeast, was a winner of Downbeat Magazine's Gold Award at Chicago's Music Fest and was featured in Southern Living Magazine.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 on the day of the show.

Want To Go?

Date: Saturday, April 12
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $10 advance/$12 at the door

HayesGrass Quarterfinals—April 15 and 16

Eight High Country bands and musicians have been selected to participate in HayesGrass, a playoff-style contest taking place between April 15 and May 16, with the grand prize winner performing as the opening act for the renowned Lonesome River Band when the popular bluegrass outfit plays the Hayes Center on Saturday, May 17.

On Tuesday, April 15, Diana & Sarvis Ridge and Blood Bought perform. On Wednesday, April 16, Broken Wire and Lost Ridge Band perform. Performances by the remaining four bands take place April 22 and 23.

Shows begin at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $10.

Satchmo Live!--April 19

Jazz trumpeter Ramon Kenan delivers an uncanny impersonation of the legendary jazz musician Louis Armstrong, capturing Satcho’s style—exceptional technical ability, joy, spontaneity and a rapid, inventive musical mind that still dominates jazz today—in every nuance of his performance, from Armstrong’s humble beginnings in the Storyville section of New Orleans to his triumphant world tours.

The show also stars jazz singer Theresa Richmond as Ella Fitzgerald and features such Armstrong classics as “What a Wonderful World,” “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Hello, Dolly,” among others.

Satchmo Live! plays one night only on Saturday, April 19, at 8:00. Tickets are $26 for adults and $20 for students.

Want To Go?

Date: Saturday, April 19
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $26 adults/$20 students

The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron?—April 20

A hit show from coast to coast, Robert Dubac’s wildly funny one-man show Robert Dubac’s The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron? finds Dubac’s alter ego Bobby, recently dumped by his fiancée, ransacking his brain to confront the eternal male question: “What do women want?” As Dubac seamlessly trots out the varying personas of Bobby’s five chauvinist friends—a retired war hero, a French exchange student, a Jack Nicholson wannabe, a tattooed tough guy and an ancient fisherman—each offering his own unique and tragically misguided insight into the feminine mystique, a fast-paced evening of harmless yet hilarious male/female gender bashing ensues.

This show is recommended for mature audiences.

The Male Intellect plays for one night only on Sunday, April 20, at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are $26 for adults and $20 for students.

Want To Go?

Date: Sunday, April 20
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $26 adults/$20 students

HayesGrass Quarterfinals—April 22 and 23

On Tuesday, April 22, Boss Hawg and Ten Broeck perform. On Wednesday, April 23, Amantha Mill and Surefire Bluegrass Band perform.

Shows begin at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $10.

Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater—April 25

The concert begins when a 10-foot cylinder slithers onto the stage and implodes, and before long the entire audience is playing catch with gigantic inflatable props that shimmer, balloon, deflate and bounce in a rainbow of colors. Such is the fast-paced, energetic and theatrically clever world of Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Co., as namesake Fred Garbo and ballerina Daielma Santos mesmerize audiences with imaginative imagery and artistic foolishness.

Backed by music ranging from Latin to the Blues Brothers, Garbo (a master juggler, acrobat and mime) and Santos (a wicked dancer who can transition from ballet to the cancan and be funny in between) are buoyant fun, astounding audiences with their pop-action inflatables—including a dog called Puff the Air-Dale and Fred Zepelin who comes to life when Garbo, inside a parachute-silk suit, blows himself up and reproportions his body so his head appears like a ridiculously tiny ball atop a bloated body that leads the audience in a clap-along song while performing acrobatics and balancing routines.

Seen on the Late Show with David Letterman, at the Kennedy Center, on Broadway, and on stage and television in Chile, Japan, Ireland and Brazil to name but a few, Garbo was the acrobat inside Sesame Street’s Barkley the Dog and the chief juggler in Broadway’s Barnum. For the last 16 years, he has been inventing inflatables with artist/builder George York and has trained and performed with Master of Illusion Tony Montanaro.

Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater Co. performs one night only on Friday, April 25, at 7:30. Tickets are $20 for adults and $14 for students.

Want To Go?

Date: Friday, April 25
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Hayes Performing Arts Center
Cost: $20 adults/$14 students

Blowing Rock Stage Company Art Contest Deadline May 1

Calling all artists of the visual genre! The Blowing Rock Stage Company is conducting an art contest in conjunction with its October 2008 production of Shakespeare’s wildly fantastical play The Tempest. The grand prize is $250, and the winner’s work will be incorporated into the final design of the play. The competition is open to all high school and college students in Watauga County.

BRSC Producing Artistic Director Kenneth Kay plans for the Stage Company’s version of The Tempest to be as inventive as the Bard’s trip-tastic adventure. “The Tempest is going to be a multimedia production,” Kay said. “That means we plan to incorporate traditional scenic elements with visual projections that will give the play a fresh look and create some real excitement for our audiences.”

“Stylistically,” Kay explained, “we want the illustrations we use to resemble the kind of drawings that can be seen in such comics as Star Wars Legacy or Captain America.

Entrants will first be asked to submit a drawing in the requested style. Several finalists will then be chosen and asked to illustrate specific parts of The Tempest. Members of BRSC’s production staff will choose the winner.

“This is a rare opportunity for a young local artist,” said Kay. “The winning artist will work alongside a professional designer and ultimately see his or her artwork projected into the overall design of the play.”

All suitable artwork from the non-winning entrants will be displayed in the lobby of the Hayes Center during the run of The Tempest.

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, May 1. For complete contest details and an official entry application, contact Kenneth Kay at 828-295-9168.

Upcoming Films at the Hayes Center in April

Compiled by Kathleen McFadden

With so much going on at the Hayes Center in April, it’s no surprise that only three movies are scheduled during the month. Admission to shows is $5, and tickets are available at the box office prior to the show. For info, call the Hayes Center at 828-295-9627.

Movie: Jaws (1975)

Date: Monday, April 7

Times: 2:30 and 7:00 p.m.

Description: There has never been a movie or a phenomenon like Jaws, the terrifying motion picture from the horrific bestseller and one of the most popular films of all time. Directed by Steven Spielberg and acclaimed by critics worldwide, Jaws continues to shock moviegoers with its riveting tale of three men who become allied in a life-and-death hunt to destroy a killer embodying nearly three tons of instant white death.

Movie: The Sting (1973)

Date: Monday, April 14

Times: 2:30 and 7:00 p.m.

Description: The scene is the Chicago underworld of the 1930s, prospering while the rest of the world suffers from the Depression. Johnny Hooker, played by Robert Redford, is an apprentice con man who is ready to tackle the big league. Henry Gondorff, played by Paul Newman, is the king of the con men, aging but no less clever. Together, they set about to pull “the big con.”

Movie: On Golden Pond (1981)

Date: Monday, April 21

Times: 2:30 and 7:00 p.m.

Description: Cinematic history was made in this first paring of movie greats Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda as an elderly couple spending what may be their last summer together. Things become complicated when their daughter, played by Jane Fonda, arrives only to revive old antagonism and drop off her fiancé’s son.