The Knight Arts program is now seeking grant opportunities in Akron that can create transformational and sustainable change through artistic excellence and collective cultural experiences. If you’re interested in learning more about working with Knight in the arts, please contact Akron Program Director Jennifer Thomas.
Mardi Gras may be just over with Lent rolling in, but Neos Dance Theatre will be keeping the fun the frivolity going with its production of “Creole Cinderella.” Representatives of the company say that Neos’ version is an “outrageous, silly and often touching retelling of the classical tale.” The ballet follows the basic original storyline of [...]
Pearl Cleage’s play, “Flyin’ West,” which is being performed at Weathervane Playhouse, a Knight Arts grantee, tells the story about something most of us don’t know – what happened to many southern slaves when they were emancipated by Abraham Lincoln in the Confederate States and freed everywhere else later by the 13th Amendment (which abolished [...]
Motorcycle riders can conjure up curious images: maybe as a gang of thugs drifting around looking for trouble, or a group of restless spirit young men and women adrift on the open road. The exhibit at the Akron Art Museum, a Knight Arts grantee, kind of sets the record straight, as seen through the eyes [...]
Word has it that famous playwright Eugene O’Neill had a great first year when he got to Broadway in 1920 with his plays. One of the reasons was his second Broadway production – “The Emperor Jones.” The play tells the tale of Brutus Jones, an African American who kills a man and is imprisoned but then [...]
Sometimes visual artists – sculptors among them – can come across as slightly vague when talking about their works and what they mean. Take Joe Bartram, who created a large space installation in Summit Artspace, a Knight Arts grantee, for public viewing but especially as part of First Night Akron (the big New Year’s Eve [...]
Agatha Christie’s “Black Coffee” must be decaf, cause it lacks the jolt and jitters that most audience members and enthusiasts would like. While Coach House Theatre’s production of it cannot compensate for the thinness of the plot materials, it brings robustness through other production values – acting, directing, costumes and set. The narrative dances gingerly [...]
If you like “talky” dramas, go see “Fiction” that is being put on by Actors’ Summit, a Knight Arts grantee. Unfortunately I don’t, and that’s too bad because the playwright, Steven Dietz, is a gifted scriptwriter. The language, the references and allusions to literary works and philosophical ideas – these are captivating and can keep [...]
The current exhibit at Summit Artspace, a Knight arts grantee, might seem a little confusing from the handout enumerating and describing the installation. It reads as though the whole show featuring abstract painters/mixed media artists Michael Gable and Natalie Petrosky is called “More Songs about Buildings and Land.” In walking through the exhibit, you notice right [...]
By Sharon Gillberg, Downtown Akron Partnership On Monday, Dec. 31, from 6 p.m. – midnight, thousands of revelers enjoyed enjoy entertainment and fun throughout Downtown Akron. 2013 was the 17th year for First Night Akron, a New Year’s Eve event unlike any other. This family-friendly, alcohol-free celebration of the arts included 10 venues filled with [...]
I give. What’s a theorbo? For that matter, what’s a “serata?” Apollo’s Fire, a Knight Arts grantee, in its winter concert, “The Intimate Vivaldi,” is the place to find the answers. Actually a theorbo is a plucked string instrument and belongs in the lute family, but had its origins apparently in the need for its [...]
