Calendar of Events

Workshop: MOVEMENT FOR ACTORS AND IMPROVISERS
Presented by Ripley Improv w/ instructors Mary Chieffo and Madi Goff
Learn the tools for becoming a dynamic performer and creating ensembles that spin improvised adventures from absolutely nothing in Ripley’s Movement for Actors and Improvisers Workshop.

Starting with the basics of Alexander technique, actors and improvisers will learn to energetically connect to the body and voice. Then, using improvisation along with select lines from Shakespeare’s plays, students will explore tools for stage presence and moment-to-moment work, enhancing their connection to fellow performers and the audience. Finally, in improvised scene work, students will put it all together and discover how connection, emotion, and stage picture creates story.

Bios for Instructors Mary Chieffo and Madi Goff:

Mary Chieffo (Ripley Guest Artist) is a Juilliard alum, studied Shakespeare enthusiast, and Star Trek: Discovery actor.

Madi Goff (Ripley Company Member) is Groundlings Sunday alum and current performer in The Groundlings Crazy Uncle Joe Show.

March 9, 2023
Thursday at 7pm

DYSTOPIA WORKSHOP
Presented by Ripley Improv
Learn how to improvise narrative through the lens of genre! Ripley Improv will pull back the curtain and reveal the tropes, themes, and characters that make an improvised play a YA Dystopia. You’ll monologue, you’ll fight, you’ll fall in love, and, in the end, you’ll know how to construct a complete show. After you attend the workshop, be sure to get a ticket to the show. Ripley will be drawing an attendee’s name from a hat. The winner will be one of the tributes to perform in Saturday’s DYSTOPIA show.

About Ripley Improv:

Ripley is an all-female and nonbinary, genderqueer improv collective that creates stories about people who save the day, save the world, and save each other.

Their mission: To awaken bravery, embrace weird, and cultivate play.

March 11, 2023
Saturday at 11am

Oscar Wilde’s brilliant and wicked comic-masterpiece defines wit and style. The comedy is blissfully silly and outrageously shrewd. Over 120 years after its first performance, The Importance of Being Earnest continues to delight audiences with its playful language, charming character and biting look at society.

The Importance of Being Earnest is the story of two bachelors, John “Jack” Worthing and Algernon “Algy” Moncrieff, who create alter egos named Ernest to escape their tiresome lives. They attempt to win the hearts of two women who, conveniently, claim to only love men called Ernest. The pair struggle to keep up with their own stories and become tangled in a tale of deception, disguise and misadventure. The elaborate plot ridicules Victorian sensibilities with some of the best loved, and indeed bizarre, characters to be found on the modern stage. Presented in a reader’s theater format, actors don’t memorize scripts but read them to the audience while using their voices and upper bodies to convey the roles they are playing.

Reader’s theatre actors don’t memorize scripts but read them to the audience while using their voices and upper bodies to convey the roles they are playing. Actors also use vocal and facial expressions, as well as hand and arm movements.

The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest features Natalie Broadway as Cecily, Rachel Crisp as the Reader, Rowan Duncan as Jack, Bruce Jayne as Lane and Merriman, Alexandra McPherson as Miss Prism, Regina Palian as Gwendolen, Terry Terranova as Dr. Chasuble, Matt Wade as Algernon and Katie Winkler as Lady Bracknell.

The Importance of Being Earnest’s artistic team includes director John Baldwin and stage manager Sara Hassinger.

John Baldwin began directing 10 years ago at Broadway West in Fremont, CA. His directing credits include Run For Your Wife, Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some), Coney Island Christmas, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, A Very Modern Marriage, and has directed for play festivals for The Magnetic Theatre and Calliope Stage in Silva.

The show is rated PG due to mild adult situations. Showtimes are 3 pm and 7:30 pm on Saturday, March 11. Running time is approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with one 15 minute intermission. Hendersonville Theater has made masks optional for patrons, and no proof of vaccination is required to attend a performance.

Ripley’s premiere genre brings epic dystopian storytelling to life on the stage, honoring popular titles such as Hunger Games, Divergent, and A Handmaid’s Tale. In each performance you can expect to find your protagonist battling the evil powers that be as well as her own hormones. What might otherwise be a silly exploration of teenagers in a bleak setting often turns into a heartfelt commentary on everyone’s unique ability to rise to the challenge and affect change.

About Ripley Improv: Ripley Improv is an all-female and nonbinary / genderqueer improv collective that creates stories about people who save the day, save the world, and save each other.  Their mission: To awaken bravery, embrace weird, and cultivate play.

With Mary Chieffo, Madi Goff, Laurie Jones, Kelly Lohman and Jessica Lynn Verdi.

March 11, 2023
Saturday at 7:30pm

Workshop
MUSICAL IMPROV
Presented by Ripley Improv w/ instructor Kelly Lohman

Improvising songs can be as easy as A/B, A/B, C! Learn simple musical formats that will wow an audience and make you feel like a wiz. Practice scene-into-song techniques and ways in which a song can enhance your character’s emotional journey. Taught by Ripley Improv member, Kelly Lohman, a 20-year musical improv veteran and recurring guest artist on the fully-improvised (and musical) television series Show Offs.

Bio for Instructor Kelly Lohman:

Kelly Lohman is a member of Little Candle Productions and Vs. Theatre Company. She improvises musicals in cities across the country with The Society. Kelly performs regularly at Impro Studio with Ripley, Oregon Trail Uncharted, Fraudway, and more. Favorite theatrical roles include Hope in “Urinetown”, Christine in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, Anne in “The Elliots”, and Jennifer in “The Dastardly Ficus”. TV and film credits include Bones, Gilmore Girls, Days of Our Lives, and The Hillside Strangler.

March 12, 2023
Sunday at 11am

About Ripley Improv:  Ripley Improv is an all-female and nonbinary / genderqueer improv collective that creates stories about people who save the day, save the world, and save each other.

Their mission: To awaken bravery, embrace weird, and cultivate play.

ENCOUNTER
Presented by Ripley Improv
ENCOUNTER is a fully-improvised, hour-long stage play that explores the stories of first contact between one woman and the completely unknown. Inspired by Ripley’s namesake film Alien, along with Arrival, and the book Annihilation, ENCOUNTER blends sci-fi, horror, and “the new weird,” unpacking the emotional and psychological impact of a meeting with benevolent extraterrestrials, malevolent predators, and entirely unexplained forces.

Ripley has no script. No set dialogue. Not even an outline. Each performance of ENCOUNTER offers a brand new story based on a single audience suggestion.

With Mary Chieffo, Madi Goff, Laurie Jones, Kelly Lohman and Jessica Lynn Verdi.

About Ripley Improv:

Ripley Improv is all-female and nonbinary, genderqueer improv collective that creates stories about people who save the day, save the world, and save each other.

Their mission: To awaken bravery, embrace weird, and cultivate play.

March 12, 2023
Sunday at 4:00pm

3.16.23 The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement PULP
What: Stand up Comedy at The Orange Peel’s Pulp Lounge
When: Thursday 3.16.2023. 8p-10p, doors at 7:30p
Where: The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement, Pulp Lounge103 Hilliard Ave, Downtown Asheville
Tickets: $14 (available at door or The Orange Peel website)
Cocktails available while you laugh the night away to some of the area’s best Stand Up Comics in a ridiculously fun adult environment!! .
Open mic comics signup at door get 3-5m. [Free entry for performing comics, free snacks at comics table]
Featuring Marlene Thompson
Marlene Thompson is an improviser, stand up and actor residing in Asheville, NC. She moved to the mountains from Chicago, where she studied improv and sketch at the Second City Conservatory, iO Chicago and Annoyance Theater. She’s a founding member of and performer with several local improv troupes and teaches improv at The Actors Center of Asheville. She also hosts. writes and produces her own political comedy show, From the Ashes with Marlene Thompson of YouTube. Marlene has performed at countless comedy festivals all over the country and has opened for comics Joe Zimmerman, Kate Willett, Brandie Posey and Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall.
Host Cody Hughes: Cody is a comedian who cut his teeth in Chicago and Atlanta. He is now based out of West North Carolina and tours the Southeast. He has opened for Lewis Black, John Oliver and Maria Bamford among others and hosts the regular Slice of Life Comedy shows at The Orange Peel’s Pulp Lounge.
About Pulp: The speakeasy inspired hideaway offers a cozy space for show-goers to relax and enjoy a beverage during the concert. Boasting over 200 different Bourbons and Whiskeys, alongside a myriad of other spirits, it is a must-visit for cocktail lovers and Bourbon sippers alike. Pulp will also open various other nights to feature local artists and “Slice of Life” open-mic comedy nights. To stay informed with the happenings at Pulp, visit the Orange Peel’s website, and follow @pulp_avl on Instagram.

3.16.23 The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement PULP
What: Stand up Comedy at The Orange Peel’s Pulp Lounge
When: Thursday 3.16.2023. 8p-10p, doors at 7:30p
Where: The Orange Peel’s Comedy Basement, Pulp Lounge103 Hilliard Ave, Downtown Asheville
Tickets: $14 (available at door or The Orange Peel website)
Cocktails available while you laugh the night away to some of the area’s best Stand Up Comics in a ridiculously fun adult environment!! .
Open mic comics signup at door get 3-5m. [Free entry for performing comics, free snacks at comics table]
Featuring Marlene Thompson
Marlene Thompson is an improviser, stand up and actor residing in Asheville, NC. She moved to the mountains from Chicago, where she studied improv and sketch at the Second City Conservatory, iO Chicago and Annoyance Theater. She’s a founding member of and performer with several local improv troupes and teaches improv at The Actors Center of Asheville. She also hosts. writes and produces her own political comedy show, From the Ashes with Marlene Thompson of YouTube. Marlene has performed at countless comedy festivals all over the country and has opened for comics Joe Zimmerman, Kate Willett, Brandie Posey and Kevin McDonald from Kids in the Hall.
Host Cody Hughes: Cody is a comedian who cut his teeth in Chicago and Atlanta. He is now based out of West North Carolina and tours the Southeast. He has opened for Lewis Black, John Oliver and Maria Bamford among others and hosts the regular Slice of Life Comedy shows at The Orange Peel’s Pulp Lounge.
About Pulp: The speakeasy inspired hideaway offers a cozy space for show-goers to relax and enjoy a beverage during the concert. Boasting over 200 different Bourbons and Whiskeys, alongside a myriad of other spirits, it is a must-visit for cocktail lovers and Bourbon sippers alike. Pulp will also open various other nights to feature local artists and “Slice of Life” open-mic comedy nights. To stay informed with the happenings at Pulp, visit the Orange Peel’s website, and follow @pulp_avl on Instagram.

RTS: Hay Fever

By Noel Coward

Friday and Saturday performances are held at Asheville Community Theatre; Sunday performances are held at the Reuter Center on the campus of UNCA. 

Hay Fever is presented as readers theatre by The Autumn Players.

David Bliss and his wife, Judith, find their quiet family weekend in the country interrupted when their high-spirited children, Simon and Sorel, arrive with uninvited guests. Drama unfolds for the Bliss family as comedic misunderstandings and tempers flare in the countryside.

Tickets The Vagina Monologues Tickets | Asheville, NC | The Orange Peel (etix.com)

FULLY SEATED SHOW

The Vagina Monologues is a play written by Eve Ensler, and is based on interviews with over 200 women. The purpose of the Monologues is to raise funds and awareness for anti-violence groups in our local communities in an effort to end domestic and sexual violence against women. 100% percent of the proceeds from this production will go directly to Helpmate of Asheville (www.helpmateonline.org), and all of our cast are volunteers.    

This is not just a show for women; men are especially encouraged to attend. These are issues that affect your mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, and friends. And you know what? Although there are aspects of the show that are heart-wrenching, the majority of it is absolutely hilarious!   

This event is a fundraising effort spearheaded by Allison Taylor of WNC Weddings & Events (www.wncweddings.net) and Skillful Solutions, LLC (www.skillfulsolutions.net), who is managing the casting, directing, and producing, as well as contributing on-stage. She will be joined by a phenomenal cast of local women, who will make you laugh hysterically, cringe in empathy, and emerge with passion and hope. Her productions have raised almost $45,000 for local women’s shelters in previous years.         

Prices are $25 for General Admission (in advance) or $35 (at the door), and $15 for students (in advance) or $20 (at the door). The Monologues definitely contain mature material, and it is recommended for ages 17 and up. Anyone age 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult.  

We’re putting our build crew back together and we’d love to have you join us. Every 2 weeks, we’ll meet at 9 am for hands-on set construction! Whether your talents are building, painting, or you just want to learn, come out and join us every other Saturday for some creative fun. Tools and work gloves are helpful but not required

Join local Lighting Designer Abby Auman for the first workshop of our Magnetic U Designer series, and learn some basic lighting design tricks of the trade. Walk away from this empowering session feeling confident that you understand basic lighting design principles and the importance of the artistic, conceptual, and collaborative side of the craft. Students will learn functional basics of design and programming that can be put to practical use.

About the instructor: Abby is the Technical Director of The Magnetic Theatre. She also works as a lighting designer in theaters all over WNC.

RTS: Hay Fever

By Noel Coward

Friday and Saturday performances are held at Asheville Community Theatre; Sunday performances are held at the Reuter Center on the campus of UNCA. 

Hay Fever is presented as readers theatre by The Autumn Players.

David Bliss and his wife, Judith, find their quiet family weekend in the country interrupted when their high-spirited children, Simon and Sorel, arrive with uninvited guests. Drama unfolds for the Bliss family as comedic misunderstandings and tempers flare in the countryside.

RTS: Hay Fever

By Noel Coward

Friday and Saturday performances are held at Asheville Community Theatre; Sunday performances are held at the Reuter Center on the campus of UNCA. 

Hay Fever is presented as readers theatre by The Autumn Players.

David Bliss and his wife, Judith, find their quiet family weekend in the country interrupted when their high-spirited children, Simon and Sorel, arrive with uninvited guests. Drama unfolds for the Bliss family as comedic misunderstandings and tempers flare in the countryside.

The Good, The Bad and The Guilty: A Trio of One-Acts

The Rising of the Moon by Lady Gregory
Trifles by Susan Glaspell
In the Shadow of the Glen by J.M. Synge

Directed by Margaret Crowell

AUDITION DATE: Tuesday, March 21, 2023; 10:30 am-2:30 pm on the Mainstage

PRODUCTION DATES: April 14-16, 2023; All performances at 2:30 pm; Friday and Saturday performances at Asheville Community Theatre, Sunday performance at the Reuter Center on the campus of UNCA

REHEARSALS: Tuesdays & Thursdays March 28, 30, April 4, 6, 11, and 13, 2023; 10:30 am-2:30 pm

DIRECTOR SEEKS:
The Rising of the Moon – 4M
Trifles – 3M, 2W
In the Shadow of the Glen – 3M, 1W

By Christopher Durang

Winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play.

Middle-aged siblings Vanya and Sonia share a home in Bucks County, PA, where they bicker and complain about the circumstances of their lives. Suddenly, their movie-star sister, Masha, swoops in with her new boy toy, Spike. Old resentments flare up, eventually leading to threats to sell the house. Also on the scene are sassy maid Cassandra, who can predict the future, and a lovely young aspiring actress named Nina, whose prettiness somewhat worries the imperious Masha.

Discretionary Content: Adult themes and Language