Diana Wortham Theatre announces 2018 scholarship program for young emerging artists

The Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville, North Carolina announces the 2018 Y.E.S. Emerging Artists Fund, a program to support young performers by providing scholarships for graduating high school seniors pursuing a career in the performing arts. A limited number of Emerging Artists Fund scholarships beginning at $1,000 each will be awarded to finalists during a special concert on May 5, 2018 by Jane Kramer featuring Free Planet Radio and Billy Cardine at the Diana Wortham Theatre. Participants may also have the opportunity to perform a segment of their work at this event.

“We are delighted to continue this program after its success the past two years,” says Rae Geoffrey, Managing Director of Diana Wortham Theatre. “The Emerging Artists Fund scholarship can open doors for the next generation of performing artists in our community.”

Any student graduating from high school in 2018 may apply for the Emerging Artists Fund scholarship. Applicants must currently be permanent residents of Buncombe County, must intend to pursue a career in the performing arts, and must receive a recommendation from a teacher, instructor, or mentor.

The Emerging Artists Fund is an outgrowth of the Y.E.S. (Youth Education Scholarship) Fund, which was created to make it possible for underserved students to attend Diana Wortham Theatre school programming. Scholarships, made possible by private donors, cover the cost of admission and are available to students on a free or reduced lunch program. The Y.E.S. program expanded in 2015 to cover artist workshops in local schools and expanded in 2016 to cover the Emerging Artists Fund. Donations to the Y.E.S. Fund and its programs are accepted any time; more information at www.dwtheatre.com.

To apply for an Emerging Artists Fund scholarship, students must complete the application, create an audition video, and obtain a recommendation from a teacher or mentor. Submit materials to Diana Wortham Theatre via email or mail by 5:00 p.m. February 16, 2018. Submission of an application does not guarantee an award.

Award winners should be available to perform at the May 5, 2018 event with Jane Kramer featuring Free Planet Radio and Billy Cardine, and to participate in required rehearsals on May 3 & 4, 2018. Lauded by UK music reviewer Three Chords and the Truth as sounding like she was “born to gypsy poets and raised by Emmylou Harris,” songstress Jane Kramer has garnered international recognition for the sultry, heartrending originality of her vocals and for the heavy-hitting lyrical eloquence of her songwriting. As part of Diana Wortham Theatre’s Mainstage Series, Kramer’s May 5^th benefit performance for the Y.E.S. Fund features local favorites Free Planet Radio and Billy Cardine. All of them will work with the Y.E.S. Emerging Artist award winners to integrate and showcase the students and their talent into the May 5^th performance.

Contact/Info: For more information on the Y.E.S. Emerging Artists Fund, visit www.dwtheatre.com or call the theatre at 828-257-4530.

Sunny Point Cafe provides matching opportunity to keep national park safe

Friends of the Smokies and Sunny Point Café in Asheville are joining forces this November to raise money for radio and emergency communications improvements in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Donation envelopes will be available on tables at the restaurant throughout the month, and all gifts made by patrons will be matched up to $1,000 by Sunny Point Café.

Donations made to Friends of the Smokies at Sunny Point Café for a new radio system will keep national park visitors, volunteers, and rangers safe by allowing the park to communicate with police, fire, and emergency services in neighboring communities. It will also improve the internal communication system of the national park’s law enforcement rangers, search and rescue, wildland fire, and emergency dispatch officers.


“Our mission is to preserve, protect and provide for our park so keeping our visitor safe by implementing a new radio system is a top priority for us,” said Anna Zanetti, North Carolina Director of Friends of the Smokies. “We are thankful to Sunny Point Café for providing this generous matching gift opportunity.”

Sunny Point Café is located at 626 Haywood Road, Asheville and is open daily.

NC Stage offers discount for WomanUP members to see "Rapture, Blister, Burn"

North Carolina Stage Company is excited to offer a special discount of 30% off the entire ticket purchase for WomanUP members on November 11, 2017 for the 7:30pm performance. The purchased ticket includes the show and a post-show discussion. Please enter the code: WomanUP at the checkout window in the coupon field. Online reservation only.  

Oct. 25th — Nov. 19th, 2017

Wed – Sat at 7:30 PM & Sun at 2:00 PM

Additional Saturday Matinees on November 11 and 18, 2017
After grad school, Catherine and Gwen chose polar opposite paths. Catherine built a career as a rockstar academic, while Gwen built a home with her husband and children. Decades later, unfulfilled in polar opposite ways, each woman covets the other’s life, commencing a dangerous game of musical chairs—the prize being Gwen’s husband. With searing insight and trademark wit, this comedy is an unflinching look at gender politics in the wake of 20th-century feminist ideals.

Gina Gionfriddo is not your ordinary playwright; her work goes far beyond the stage. Gina Gionfriddo wrote episodes for Law and Order, Cold Case and even an episode for House of Cards. The play Rapture, Blister, Burn is inspired by past arguments with her mother and cousins about Men and Children and Career and all that stuff. The fact that she found herself in the same argument twice, first with her mother and then years later with her younger cousins, except on different sides got it all started. The play demonstrates how we grow up often opposing our mothers’ point of view only to find years later we understand it a great deal better.

“…intensely smart, immensely funny…RAPTURE more largely illuminates how hard it can be to forge both a satisfying career and a fulfilling personal life in an era that seems to demand superhuman achievement from everyone.” —NY Times.

Discretionary Content: Adult language and frank discussions of sex and sexuality.

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"Small Works" featured at Asheville Gallery of Art in November

Asheville Gallery of Art’s November show, “Small Works,” features the work of 22 member artists. The show runs November 1-30 during gallery hours, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. The gallery, located at 82 Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville across from Pritchard Park, will host a reception for the artists on Friday, November 3, from 5-8 p.m. Everyone is cordially invited to stop by.

The show provides artists the challenge of working within limited perimeters. All pieces in the show will be 11 x 14 inches or smaller. "Placed in an 'unexpected' spot, small artwork can work magic in a room or grouping. I love the effect they have and I especially love creating them," says gallery artist Sally Lordeon.

This show is a great opportunity to own work in a wide range of subject matter, media, and styles by some of the most noted local artists in Asheville. Collectors will be able to find landscapes, still lives, and small abstracts. Asheville Gallery of Art hopes art lovers will not only enjoy the show, but willuse it to purchase affordable (and packable) works of art for holiday gift giving.

The small works, as well as the work of all 31 gallery members, will be on display and for sale through the month of November. For further information about this show, you can contact Asheville Gallery of Art at (828) 251-5796, visit the gallery website at www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com, or go to the gallery Facebook page.