Monday morning arts news, June 13

EVENTS

Tuesday, June 14 through Saturday, June 18

• Gregg Museum of Art & Design: Visit your museum! Four exhibitions are now open. Galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. And don’t forget about the beautiful outdoor areas, including the pollinator garden and the whirligig. Wouldn’t the Gregg be a nice destination for a healthy midday walk?

Thursday, June 16

• Gregg Museum of Art & Design: Tai Chi in the Garden. Join a free class in the Rose Jackson and Evelyn Thiem Garden at the Gregg. 6 p.m.

Thursday, June 16 through Sunday, June 19

• TheatreFEST: Assassins. This multiple Tony Award-winning dark comedy explores the human need for acknowledgment versus the American need for celebrity, amplified by the frustrated desires of those who crossed a terrifying threshold. Evenings at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.

Friday, June 17

• University Theatre: Join Mia Self for pre-show (Foresight) and post-show (Hindsight) perspectives on the TheatreFEST production of Assassins. The pre-show conversation (6 p.m.) includes a local theatre journalist and members of the creative team. The post-show conversation features the director and members of the cast.

• TheatreFEST: Mosiac. In this first public staging of a new one-woman show, emerging artist and NC State alumna Dani Coan ’22 shares her coming of age story exploring themes of sexuality, family, anorexia and self-love. Register for this pay-what-you-can show on Eventbrite. NOTE: The schedule will allow you to attend both this show and Assassins on the same evening. Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre. 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 18

• TheatreFEST: QuickScripts. Given only a prompt and 24-hours total prep time, four teams of writers, directors, production staff and casts will write, rehearse, produce and perform four plays, culminating in an evening of 10-minute plays. Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre. 8 p.m.

CHECK. IT. OUT.

• Take small steps: In his latest “Our Life in the Arts” blog post, Rich Holly discusses his philosophy for making progress.

• During the 2020-21 season, NC State LIVE engaged several performing artists in social justice residencies, including a joint project between cellist and educator Shana Tucker and the community activists and choreographers of Culture Mill in Saxapahaw, co-led by Murielle Elizéon. For the upcoming 50th anniversary season, NC State LIVE has invited Murielle and Shana back to expand upon work they initiated during their residency in 2020-21, and that includes commissioning “When We were Queens….” This new work has just been selected as a finalist for a 2022 National Dance Project production grant – and it started with an NC State LIVE residency.

• Just announced: Two films by architect Louis Cherry and NC State film studies professor Marsha Gordon will air on PBS NC on June 23 at 10 p.m. All the Possibilities… Reflections on a Painting by Vernon Pratt is a 16-minute documentary about Pratt’s most ambitious painting, a 1,400-square-foot systematic abstraction completed in 1982 but exhibited for the first time at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design in 2018. The film features a percussive score by Rich Holly, executive director for the arts at NC State, inspired by the painting’s mathematical formulas. The Pratt film will be paired with a shortened version of Cherry and Gordon’s first documentary, Rendered Small.

• The Crafts Center welcomes Nicholas Jackson as the new wood studio manager. His first day on the job will be June 15.