NC Stage Takes No Prisoners
The National Endowment for the Arts recently awarded a grant to the Asheville-based North Carolina Stage Company to help finance their school-oriented touring show A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The grant, which is funded through the Shakespeare in American Communities program, will take effect in 2007. And, if that wasn’t enough, NC Stage was also recently honored with the North Carolina Theatre Conference’s George A. Parides Award for Outstanding Professional Theatre, for — among other things — their school outreach programs.
Dreadheads Wins A Stony
Dreadheads is the definitive (if meandering) documentary about dreadlocked white kids who spend their days following jam bands. Not surprisingly, the film has been adopted by the guitar-and-ganja-loving crowd, and was recently awarded the 2006 Stony Award for Best Stoner DVD. While the Stonys — which are sponsored by High Times magazine — don’t quite carry the weight of, say, the Golden Turkey Awards, they’ve become increasingly relevant as a mark of counterculture approval. Even though the scope of the film is national, Dreadheads features a surprising number of interviews with familiar Asheville faces.
Ladies, Get Your Hopes Up
While it may not be the most locally relevant news, the Raleigh Chronicle recently reported that George Clooney will be filming a new movie in the region. While it appears that the two-time winner of People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” award will only be coming as close as Statesville, final shooting locations for the film may eventually include locations closer to WNC. The film, Leatherheads, is a romantic comedy about a professional football league in the 1920s, and will co-star Renee Zellweger. The movie should see release by Universal Pictures in 2008.
The Whole Shooting Match
Spartanburg-based photographer J. Bart Baldwin recently took home first place in the 2006 National Parks Photography Contest, which was sponsored by Canon. A frequent contributor to local galleries like Saluda Fine Arts, Baldwin received a $5,000 prize for his haunting image of the Vietnam Memorial “Moments at Night.”
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