Winston-Salem’s Theatre Alliance has always had good luck with the plays of Del Shores. Earlier this year, an encore production of Sordid Lives proved so popular that additional shows were added.
The big news at Theatre Alliance — where the news is always big — is that the awardwinning playwright himself is bringing by Mark Burger his one-man show, Del Shores: My contributing columnist Sordid Life, to its stage (1047 Northwest Boulevard.) for one night and one night only: This Sunday at 7 p.m. The award-winning playwright, whose upbringing in Texas informed such offbeat works as Daddy’s Dyin’ (Who’s Got the Will?), Southern Baptist Sissies, Daughters of the Lone Star State (scheduled to open at Theatre Alliance in the fall) and The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer-Trash Housewife (scheduled to open at Theatre Alliance next spring), discusses his life and work in candid, humorous fashion. Shores has toured the one-man show throughout the nation: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Dallas, and now here in Winston-Salem.
General admission is $25. VIP tickets, which cost $50, entitle the bearer to meet Shores himself after the performance, as well as his partner, actor and recording artist Jason Dottley. Shores will gladly sign autographs and pose for photos. If not a once-in-a-lifetime event, this is pretty close — so reservations are strongly suggested. The only way to get tickets is through the Theatre Alliance website (see below).
If you’re not able to make Del Shores: My Sordid Life, Theatre Alliance also has the Triad premiere of The Great American Trailer Park Musical, a light-hearted musical romp very much in the Shores spirit, which opens Friday and runs through Aug. 23. Tickets are $16; $14 for students and senior citizens. Group rates are available, too.
The 2009 National Black Theatre Festival has th come and gone, celebrating its 20 anniversary in Winston-Salem, but the memories linger on. And, for Shanomie Blackwood (hailing from beautiful Brooklyn, NY — birthplace of my stepdad, among others), this year’s event was something truly special.
Blackwood is the first winner of the Larry Leon Hamlin and Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin/Winston- Salem Urban League Endowed Scholarship at the UNC School of the Arts (UNCSA), named for the late founder of the festival and the NC Black Repertory Co. and his widow, who has tirelessly worked to continue the grand (and great) tradition of the festival — and to impart its impact upon the next generation of aspiring black artists. The theme of the scholarshop is “Nurture the Talent,” and that’s precisely what it’s designed to do. In the upcoming fall semester at UNCSA, Blackwood will enter the bachelor of fine arts program at the school of design and production, where she’ll study the rudiments of technical direction and scene design. Thus far, during this year’s National Black Theatre Festival, she’s acted as an intern and been right in the thick of things — painting scenery, working the phones in the business office, sounding off on the soundboard during rehearsals and productions and doing all sorts of myriad duties.
The 18-year-old Blackwood graduated in June from LaGuardia Arts High School, where she studied stagecraft, and she also completed an internship with the Kaufman Center in New York, where she built and painted scenery for children’s summer workshops, and received the Alumni & Friends Award at her high-school graduation ceremony.
In a statement made last week, John Mauceri, the UNCSA Chancellor, stated: “We are grateful that the Urban League has chosen to pay tribute to the ‘artistic’ Larry Leon Hamlin and his wife, Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, in such an extraordinary way. This scholarship will benefit countless students who wish to keep the Hamlins’ vision moving forward.”
The scholarship will be awarded each year to a first-year undergraduate student, with preference given to those students who will increase the diversity of the UNCSA student body. It will alternate between the school of design and production and the school of drama.
For more information about the scholarship, or perhaps donating to it, call the Winston- Salem Urban League: 336.725.5614, ext.1001.
But that’s not all the news out of UNCSA these days, as six faculty members have recently been selected as the recipients of UNCSA Excellence in Teaching Awards: Wayne Crawford (school of filmmaking), Michael Dodds (school of music), Dayna Fox (school of dance), Lynda Moss (high school academic program), David E. Smith (school of design and production) and Marilyn Taylor (school of music).
The UNC Board of Governors first established the Excellence in Teaching Awards in 1994. Nominations are submitted by faculty, students and alumni, and are designed to recognize those teachers who have demonstrated personal interest and concern for the students, enthusiasm for and interest in the subject they teach, an ability to stimulate and motivate student effort, an ability to give a fair assessment of that effort and communicate it to the students, organization and/or demonstration of knowledge for the students’ use, a good command of the subject being taught (that always helps!), up-to-date scholarship and/or creative work and awareness of recent developments in their chosen fields, an ability to integrate professional development into curriculum development and classroom teaching and a commitment to the entire school community and well as the community and large.
In short, the most excellent teachers. That must be why it’s called the Excellence in Teaching Award. Special congratulations to Wayne Crawford, who’s a good guy. For further information about UNCSA, check out the official website. And on that note, UNCSA has its own new homepage: www.uncsa.edu.
Learn it, live it, log on to it.
For the latest doings at Theatre Alliance, check out its new and improved website: www. wstheatrealliance.org/
