The Lyric Theatre has been and will be jam packed with jammin’ live shows. We have been having a busy season with Lyric shows and rental shows by other organizations. In October we had middle eastern music, the English Concert, Charlotte Blake Alston and Mountain Heart with Laura Beth & Clover Hollow.

As we come in to November we have another full line up. Thursday 11/3 we have the Barter Theatre with Civil War Voices - a complex theatrical production to be sure. On November November 6, Planned Parenthood brings Robin and Linda Williams and their Fine Band back for an evening of Americana music. They are often featured on Prairie Home Companion and were in the movie of the same name. 11/11/11 is an a capella night with Juxtaposition. This show is always a dazzler and fills up quickly. Finally, on November 13 is the fantastic Dar Williams for the final Live at the Lyric show in 2011.

If you have never seen live theatre or been to a concert at the Lyric, November is a great month to get acquainted with it. The acoustics in the theatre are phenomenal. It is truly a great experience to see these shows live and up close.

The Lyric Theatre: The Heart of Downtown Blacksburg!

SENNA is a movie masquerading as a documentary. In the late 60s and early 70s there were a slew of racing movies and SENNA could stand with the best of Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in any of them.

Ayreton Senna’s career was well and intensely filmed, from his go cart racing to his death at the San Marino Gran Prix. The film from his car camera brings the audience right into the race. The bumps and grinds and twists grab you as he races F1 tracks bringing fame and honor to his native Brazil. Watching him win a world championship while racing in a car that is stuck in 6th gear is awesome.

The audience on Tuesday night was sparse but they were enthusiastically there to see SENNA. Unfortunately a lot of people are going to miss this great movie that ends Thursday night. Don’t be one of them!

Charlotte Blake Alston, the great story teller/musician, graces the Lyric stage on Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are still available!

I didn’t know much about CBA until I checked out her website and have copied her biography here for everyone to check out as well. This looks to be a great family event for an October Sunday afternoon. Tickets still available!

CHARLOTTE BLAKE ALSTON
Master Storyteller, Narrator, and Singer

Charlotte Blake Alston is a storyteller, narrator, instrumentalist and singer who performs in venues throughout North America and abroad. Venues are wide and include the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Smithsonian Institution, the Kimmel Center, the Women of the Word Festival in Cape Town, South Africa, prisons, detention centers and a refugee camp in northern Senegal.

She breathes life into traditional and contemporary stories from African and African American oral and cultural traditions. Her solo performances are often enhanced with traditional instruments such as djembe, mbira, shekere or the 21-stringed kora. In 1999, Charlotte began studying the kora and the West African history-telling traditions of Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Her teacher was the highly respected Senegalese griot (jali), Djimo Kouyate. Her repertoire is wide and programs are adapted to any grade level or age group.

She brings her stories and songs to national and regional festivals, schools, universities, museums, libraries and performing arts centers throughout the United States and Canada, as well as local and national radio and television.

Charlotte is the first storyteller to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on both their Family and Student concert series. Since 1994, she has been the host of “Sound All Around”; the orchestra’s preschool concert series and continues to appear as a guest host and narrator on family concerts. For 6 seasons, Charlotte hosted “Carnegie Kids”, Carnegie Hall’s Preschool concert series and has been a featured artist on the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series in NY since 1996. She has been a featured teller at The National Storytelling Festival, The National Festival of Black Storytelling, and at regional festivals throughout North America. She has been a featured artist at both the Presidential Inaugural Festivities in Washington, DC and the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Children’s Inaugural Celebrations in Harrisburg, PA. In addition to her solo performances, Charlotte performs with her brother, world-renowned jazz violinist, John Blake, Jr. and his band in Tellin’ On The Downbeat: A Program of Storytelling And Jazz. In Fiddlin’ With Stories, Charlotte and John perform as a duo featuring violin and kora, in a program that celebrates the role of stringed instruments in African and African American culture. She has collaborated with numerous instrumental ensembles as well the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera North and the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company. She has been a featured narrator for several orchestras and conductors including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Orchestra of St. Luke’s, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She represented Carnegie Hall in 2003 when she hosted a series of concerts in Miyazaki, Japan with the Eddie Arron String Quartet and fellow storyteller, Motoko. Currently, she performs as both pre-concert artist and host of Carnegie Hall’s Family Concert Series. She has served as co-host of the Cultural Exchange and Global Encounters student concerts. The Weil Music Institute at Carnegie Hall administers the international student concert series’. In 2010 she hosted 2 of Carnegie Hall’s Community Sing-Ins. One Sing-In featured the acappella group, Take 6, the other the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Charlotte’s narrative voice can be heard on documentaries including Plenty of Good Women Dancers, The Peddie School, and Crosstown. In the PBS documentary Safe Harbor, producers proclaim her “strong, steady voice is like a lantern in the darkness”. She herself was featured in the award-winning documentary Family Name that aired around the country on PBS. Kinocraft Media Productions converted her “Martin Luther King Storypoem” to video format for educational distribution. The video is entitled A Closer Look: Martin Luther King.

Ms. Alston has produced several commissioned works including narrative texts for orchestras and opera companies as well as a commission from the Huntingdon Council of the Arts to craft and tell the story of the African American community of Mount Union, Pennsylvania. Her libretto and collaboration with composer, Andrea Clearfield, resulted Kabo Omowale: Welcome Home Child - a work for orchestra, chorus and narrator. She has also created and narrated an original text for 2 movements of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade for The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Charlotte has received numerous honors including the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts. She was selected as Philadelphia Magazine’s “Best of Philly” and was the recipient of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Artist Of The Year Award (The Hazlett Memorial Award), which recognizes individual artists “for excellence in the Commonwealth.” She holds two honorary PhDs and received the Circle of Excellence Award from the National Storytelling Association. Charlotte was one of four Americans selected to perform and present at the first International Storytelling Field Conference in Ghana and was a featured artist at the Second Int’l Festival in Cape Town, South Africa. In the summer of 2005, she was the sole American selected to perform on a main stage at the STIMMEN: Voices Festival in Basel, Switzerland. In 1996, she was the Director of “In the Tradition…” the 14th National Festival of Black Storytelling. In 2009 she was the recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston Award, the highest award bestowed by the National Association of Black Storytellers.

It has been a while since we have had a movie of intrigue like The Debt. It is gritty, both in cinematography and in story. Is it true or is it a lie? Is he dead or is he alive? The movie flies through time lines until you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck! I was particularly interested in the German scenes, having lived in West Berlin in the late 60s/early 70s. It is amazing that they found so many Trabants that could still be driven.

There were parts that defied belief - martial arts training in a sixth floor walk up with no German neighbors complaining was disconcerting and not realistic of the time. Frau Knaut, my old landlady, would have sent them packing! But suspending belief is part of enjoying a movie and the intensity of the movie along with the good acting by Helen Mirren helped me get into a “it’s not real but it sure is entertaining” mode. In fact, there were more blood splatters than your average zombie movie. Beware also: WHITE ON WHITE SUBTITLES.

Not a movie for the squeamish, The Debt is a movie I had been waiting for and I wasn’t disappointed.

Be sure to get to the theatre in time for the opening trailer. Senna is coming to the Lyric and talk about intensity! Open wheel racing at its very best!

I started volunteering at the Lyric in early 2002. I had been seeing a therapist, going through a rough time of PTSD from military times and the 9/11 attacks. Having been active in the area music scene in thte 1980s, it was suggested I go to Dublin where they had a music jam certain nights where anyone could join in. The music scene in Blacksburg was in doldrums. Instead, I vasked to volunteer at the Lyric. “One or two nights a month, that’s all we ask.” Well, there were fewer volunteers back then so it bcame one or two nights a week. Back then there were 8 music concerts a year with some fantastic music acts: Del McCoury, Junior Brown, Ladysmith Black Mumbasa Band, Dereck Trucks, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyers and so on. My volunteerism eventually became a paid position, although I still volunteer. As for my therapist’s suggestion I go to Dublin, I bought a seat at the Lyric instead and have the notation”It’s cheaper than therapy” emblazoned on the arm.

The Lyric has changed a lot over the years. It has become an institution, “The Heart of Downtown Blacksburg”. And it is an AWESOME place - a place for the entire community, not just old townies or young Tech students. It has hosted the Indigo Girls and just recently, the Steep Canyon Rangers. But it has also grown from just a music and movie venue to Live At The Lyric, Midnight Movies, and a great place for non profit organizations to raisse funds for their organizations. Community Voices lecture series, Landjam, Planned Parenthood, Actors Theatre of Blacksburg and many more organizations now plan special events that help bring culture to the Sahara of the Bozart known as southwest Virginia.

I attend many of these events and must say, some are more well attended than others but that is part of what the Lyric is all about. Those people who saw TopDog/Under Dog saw a very intense drama that was very professionally performed. The Christmas pageants put on by New River Stage give young talent the chance to perform on the big stage. I remember my son tap dancing at a recital with Carol Crawford’s School of Dance … and he remembers it well as a highpoint of his childhood.

The Land Trust and Community Voices, as well as many other rganizations, have provided lecture series that enlighten and inform their audiences about how things are and how they can be better. The Lyric has provided candidate debates at election time as a place where locals can see and hear what politicians hope to accomplish should they be elected. Loyalty to the Royalty for King George’s island nation has also been revered when the Lyric hosted the royal wedding of William and Kate. And let everyone forget the wonderous Kazoo Marching Band at the annual Holiday Parade.

Lyric audiences have had a hand in where the Lyric chart’s her course as well. The Lyric has had zombie film festivals, bicycle film festivals, mountain film festivals, sustainability film festivals and now has midnight movie classic film festivals. Recently the Lyric asked Facebook readers would they rather see The Way, a movie recently shown at Virginia Tech, or Senna, an oddity documentary about a Brazilian open wheel race car driver. While it may not be as well attended as The Way, Senna won out and a group of racing enthusiasts will get to see a great, though off beat, documentary.

I have sen the Lyric grow, the audiences grow, the quality of productions grow. Blacksburg has again become more musically diverse, as it was in the 1980s. Instead of focusing solely on music as it did in the early days of the Theatre, the lyric continues to branch out in quality entertainment. This month, Charlotte Blake Alston, a nationally renowned story teller graces the Lyric’s stage. Next month the Barter Theatre brings their massive Civil War Voices production. The Capital Steps are on their way as well. Don’t miss out on the opportunities provieded by The Heart of Downtown Blacksburg. the Lyric Theatre.

The Lyric - it is cheaper than therapy.

Looking for something unusual and entertaining to do Sunday afternoon? Come to the Lyric for a free concert of Middle Eastern music at 3pm. Best of all (besides the popcorn) the concert is FREE! I know my friends from MUSE/Mandara Dance Company will be happy to see this. I remember Anne Elise Thomas performing in 2010 and it was fascinating!

The Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, the Center for the Arts, and the CLAHS Dean’s Advisory Committee on International Initiatives, present Al-Hawanim, a five-woman ensemble performing Middle Eastern music.

Featuring:
Elizabeth Ayoub, singer
Anne Rasmussen, ‘ud
Anne Elise Thomas, qanum
Bridget Robbins, nay
Myriam Eli, percussion (riqq, daff, darabuka

Funding by: College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Center for the Arts, CLAHS Department Diversity Award, and the following CLAHS departments and programs: Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT), Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, Music, Political Science, Reema Samaha Arabic Language and Cultural Initiative, Religion and Culture, & the School of Performing Arts and Cinema.

Showtimes:
Sunday October 2, 2011
3:00pm - Admission is Free

So after a cold, wet football Saturday, come to a warm, dry, fantastic FREE concert on Sunday!

The Lyric Theatre: The Heart of downtown Blacksburg!

Thursday night started out kind of frantic, setting up for the Steep Canyon Rangers. Then the duet, The Honeycutters, showed up as a quartet, and pretty scruffy at that. Oh well, they were just the opening act. Sound check went okay. Everybody seemed happy and mellow. Then the show starts and THE HONEYCUTTERS blitzed the audience.

OMG - it was like a young Gillian Welch and David Rawlings backed by a bass and mandolin were wowing the Theatre. They cleaned up well and by the middle of the second song I abandoned my post at the light console and was buying their only CD. Soulful, sensitive, descriptive songwriting matched with a gravely alto backed by a strong tenor - the whole audience was mesmerized. The first time I saw Garth Brooks out in Colorado as an opening act, I felt the same way. To this day I can’t remember the headliner! The Honeycutters is a group to keep in your sights - they have a great future!

Okay, after such a great review, what is left to say about the Steep Canyon Rangers? In the old day, bluegrass bands did a constant pirouette around a stage microphone. It was an art form that was lost when everyone got their own microphone and stared at the audience instead of each other. SCR band members each had their own microphones but the choreography, switching around, recombining to swap harmonies, was art taken to a higher level. Their timing was flawless and their drive, even when doing a slow song, was constant. They had an energy that just did not stop. Their fiddle player, a classical concert violinist, looked like a Mac Magaha clone, dancing and hopping and whooping it up. The three vocalists switched and swapped and danced around the stage pairing voices with intrumental harmonies.

Ya snooze, ya lose, and if you weren’t there, you’ll just have to listen to the rest of us tell you how great an evening it was. Check the Lyric website - thelyric.com - for all our coming events or just look at earlier blog entries. The Lyric has outdone itself this year and that is saying a lot!

I am sooo ready for Thursday, 9/22, Live At The Lyric Presents the Steep Canyon Rangers. Guys, if you read this, my requests are for: Atheists Don’t Have No Songs, Yellow Backed Fly, Jubilation Day, Feelin Just A Little Like Dale and Call the the Captain.

Hrd driving amazing bluegrass, these boys kick some SERIOUS butt. They have been joined by Ronnie Bowman, Steve Martin, the Dixie Chicks and Paul McCartney, fer gollywompems sake, which only shows how AWESOME they are. They make all those other folks sound so good and are even wilder on their own.

Have you gotten your tickets yet? There are still tickets available, although I DON’T KNOW WHY! Thursday night, September 22 - THIS Thursday. WOWSER!

The Lyric theatre - the HEART of Downtown Blacksburg.

I got this from Laureen @ Downtown Blacksburg Inc (DBI) WOW! Feeling like there is nothing to do besides football? Check out all the happenings Downtown. And remember, the Lyric Theatre IS the Heart of Downtown Blacksburg! I can’t think of a better place to be “local” than right here!

Please join us at some of the many fun and exciting events hosted by Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. and our members.
See you downtown!

OUR MISSION
Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. (DBI) is an association of merchants, property owners, and downtown advocates whose mission is to sustain a dynamic, vital, and diverse community through marketing, events, economic development, and leadership.

Events
Actors Theater of Blacksburg presents:Top Dog/ Underdog
at The Lyric Theatre, Sept 24 & 25 at 2:00pm & 7:00pm

Downtown Tailgate presented by Downtown Blacksburg, Inc.
Friday September 30 5:00-9:00pm on College Avenue- Rain or Shine!
The night before the VT/ Clemson Game- sponsored by US Cellular
Beer/wine
Hot dogs, chilli, Kettle corn, shaved ice
Inflatable bouncers and Tailgate Games
Iron Hokietron and cheerleaders
Live Music by “Train Wreck” -Classic rock/Blues/Funk
Admission: FREE

Community Arts Information Office Gallery”Water Works”
Come by and check out this sustainability week art display. A collaboration between the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia Tech and recycled art by members of Blacksburg Regional Arts Association.
Admission: FREE

Blacksburg Farmers Market Apple Tasting Event
September 24, 2011
Come and taste an amazing variety of local apples and apple products, with music by old-time band the Black Twig Pickers
Tasting admission: $2 Children’s Activities: FREE

3rd Annual Pretty in Pink fundraiser for Susan G Komen
presented by Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. Wednesday, October 12th
Have an incredible amount of fun & fight Breast Cancer! Raise money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure
More information to follow!

Hahn Horticulture Garden-Music in the Garden: Oktoberfest!
October 6, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Free music!!! Join us for some Oktoberfest fun with the Sauerkraut Band, the NRV’s pre-eminent oompah orchestra. Beer for sale by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Association - must have i.d. for purchase. Sausages + more for sale by the Food Science Club. Note this event will be cancelled if stormy.

Wednesday Garden Walks & Talks - Free!
Learn at lunchtime! All run 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. - meet at the Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion.

New River Stage presents “Countdown to Murder”a murder mystery of classical flavor about an eccentric wealthy count who has been mysteriously killed. The show is family friendly and features a healthy amount of audience participation.

Live at the Lyric- Fall Season James Gregory - The Funniest Man in America - (SE)
“Save the Chicken Tour”
Saturday September 17, 2011

For more information and tickets visit Live at the Lyric

Market Square Jam Blacksburg’s Market Square Jam is a weekly jam session that takes place on Tuesday evenings in downtown on the corner of Draper Road and Roanoke Street. Every Tuesday night from 7-11pm in Market Square Park. Mostly old time/bluegrass/folk/blues kind of music, but really it can be any type of music as long as it’s unplugged.

Blacksburg Contra Dance Group Blacksburg Contradances
Dances are on the third Saturday night of the month from 8pm to 11pm with a lesson at 7:30pm and in the YMCA Dance Room unless otherwise noted. Admission $8 (after 10pm, free) Children 10 and under get in for half price.

Southwest Virginia Social Dance Society (SVSDS)Every Friday - free dance lesson from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dancing follows at 8:30 p.m. First dance session free, and then $3.00 for members and $5.00 for non-members. Held at the YMCA Event Room.

SEEDS Nature Center Activities
Come Visit the Blacksburg Price House Nature Center:
Operated by SEEDS at Blacksburg’s historic Price House and gardens. Rain or shine…Nature discovery for children right downtown. It’s a museum and more for children and the young at heart!
107 Wharton St. SE
Hours
Tue: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Thu: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Sat: 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Fall 2011 Children’s discovery weekly themes and events…
It’s a world of water! Tues Sept 13 - Saturday 29 October: Water themes, exhibit, and watershed education.
Sat. 17 Sept. Follow the flow. 10am walk from the nature center along the water’s path to the new mural on Draper Rd.

Warm Hearth Village- 2nd annual Founders Day Festival
Saturday September 24, 2011, 11am-4pm
Craft vendors, petting zoo, free kids zone, entertainment, pet show and more
4pm-8pm BBQ, Bands & Beer Garden

YMCA- BUILDING STRONG COMMUNITIES TOGETHER
The Y strives to have a meaningful, enduring impact in our community every day.
Join our cause and help us strengthen the foundations of communities throughout the New River Valley by making a gift to our Strong Communities Campaign. To learn more about how you can have a lasting impact right in your own neighborhood, visit www.vtymca.org and give today.

Senior Discount Tuesdays
Every Tuesday in Downtown Blacksburg- savings for Seniors in 40 participating businesses. See our website for details.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ALL EVENTS VISIT OUR WEBSITE!
DBI Event Info
September 2011

Laureen Blakemore
Director,
Downtown Blacksburg, Inc.
149 College Ave.
Blacksburg, VA 24060
Phone: 540-951-0454
Email: events@downtownblacksburg.com

Join DBI
for everyday savings!
Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. (DBI) is an association of merchants, property owners, and downtown advocates whose mission is to sustain a dynamic, vital, and diverse community through marketing, events, economic development, and leadership.

BUY LOCAL. EAT LOCAL. BE LOCAL.
Offer Expires: NEVER

Well, the year has just gotten more exciting! A group of interested Lyric fans have started Lyric Theatre Late Night: movies you might have missed or have loved but haven’t seen on the big screen.

Starting with The Room on Friday, October 7, at 11:30 pm, the success of The Princess Bride showing continues. This Is Spinal Tap, the mockrockumentary comes on line Friday, November 11, again at 11:30 pm. And what looks to be the event of the fall late night/early morning season is Sing A Long With The Sound Of Music! on Friday, December 2, at 11:30 pm and Saturday, December 3 at 9:30 am. Bring your vocal chords!

Want to know more? Check out the Facebook page: Lyric Theatre Late Night