“This is a phenomenon.”- New York Magazine, Sara Holdren

All rise for Academy Award® winner Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork. The New York Times Critic’s Pick TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is “the most successful American play in Broadway history” (60 Minutes). With direction by Tony Award® winner Bartlett Sher, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD — “the greatest novel of all time” (Chicago Tribune) — has quickly become “one of the greatest plays in history” (NPR).

Emmy Award®-winning actor Richard Thomas will play the role of Atticus Finch in the National Tour.

Wanna hear the best local music ​and​ drink the best local beers? Hop aboard LaZoom’s Purple Bus and rock out with a local band while we take you on a journey to Asheville’s premiere local breweries.

Promotion: Tyler’s Amazing Balancing Act

We have been looking up to him from the beginning . . . the lanky 6’ 7’’ man of the mountains, who came bearing old-world gifts that have enriched modern lives beyond measure.  Connie Regan-Blake first met Ray Hicks on October 14, 1973 in Jonesborough, Tennessee. It was an afternoon that changed her life . . . and the course of storytelling in the United States. The setting was the first National Storytelling Festival. Come listen to stories of how Ray became the face of traditional Appalachian Mountain storytelling along with reflections on Connie’s long friendship with the Hicks family and her own personal storytelling journey.

Connie Regan-Blake is one of America’s most celebrated storytellers. She has captivated the hearts and imaginations of children and adults all across the globe with her powerful performances and workshops. Entertaining audiences in 47 states, 18 countries, and 6 continents, Connie brings the wisdom, humor and drama of stories to main stage concert halls, schools, festivals, libraries and into the corporate world.

Doors open at 6:30pm for the 7pm performance. Seating is general admission. Online ticket sales end 1 hour prior to performance time. There may still be tickets available for purchase in the office after online sales have ended. Contact BMCA for information – 828.669.0930.

From the songbook of Johnny Cash comes this unique musical about love and faith, struggle and success, rowdiness and redemption, and the healing power of home and family. More than two dozen classic hits including “I Walk The Line,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and, of course, “Ring of Fire.” Performed by a multi-talented cast, Ring of Fire paints a musical portrait of ‘The Man in Black’ that promises to be a foot-stompin’, crowd-pleasin’ salute to a unique musical legend!

To attend a Tret Fure concert is to be drawn into warmth, to family, to shared humanity. Tret sings from the depth of our collective experience with vision for a world that could be and gratitude for the simple gifts of the world as it is. Not only a prolific songwriter, Tret Fure is a poet, artist and storyteller whose career spans five decades. An icon of the women’s and folk music scenes, Fure is preparing to release her 18th album, “The Language of Love.

DIFFERENT STROKES! PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTIVE PRESENTS

THREE SIX NINE MONOLOGUE AND SHORT PLAY FESTIVAL features a curated selection of original pieces written by emerging Black Playwrights, primarily from our emerging Black Playwright’s program, A Different Myth. Join us for nine evenings of heart-warming, dramatic, funny, heart-breaking, and provocative short plays and monologues. Three Six Nine features represents 3 weekends, 6 short plays, and 9 monologues. No two weekends will be the same, and neither will you. Join us as we mix and match 12 pieces over the course of 90 minutes on 9 very different evenings.

April 6-8, 2023
April 13-15, 2023
April 20-22, 2023
at 7:30 p.m. each evening

Music, Book, & Story by Steve Martin; Music, Lyrics, & Story by Edie Brickell

Set in our very own Blue Ridge Mountains, Bright Star tells the story of Alice at two different points in her life: as a young girl in the mountains, and 22 years later as the well-to-do editor of a successful Asheville magazine. A serendipitous encounter inspires Alice to face her past, and a stunning realization changes her life forever. Bright Star is based on the Grammy Award-winning bluegrass album, Love Has Come for You, and centers particularly on the song “Iron Mountain Baby.” Be sure to listen also for the song with our namesake – “Asheville”!

Content Warning: Bright Star contains swearing, language that some may find blasphemous, incidental drinking and smoking, and kidnapping.

Accessibility:

All performances: Accessible wheelchair/scooter seating available.

Saturday, May 6, 2023: ASL-Interpreted Performance

Directed and adapted by Aaron Snook for the Drama Department from a new translation of Euripedes’ Electra by the Ancient Mediterranean Studies Department, and infused with original Appalachian roots music composed by the Music Department, this production of Elektra aims to spark a conversation around the cycles of violence that inherited hate produces.

The Civil War may have ended, but the blood that was spilled sowed the Appalachian soil with loss and grievance.  In the succeeding years, the Conservative cause nurtured those seeds with violence and intimidation, creating an inheritance of hate to be passed down to the younger generation.  In the sleepy mountain town of Mycenae, North Carolina this legacy is tearing at the heart of a young girl named Elektra.  Fatherless at the hands of her mother’s new husband, Elektra awaits her brother’s return and prays for vengeance.

La Sylphide (translated to “The Sylph”) is a magical morality tale about the pitfalls of temptation.  Set in Scotland, the ballet tells of James, his fiancé Effie, and a beautiful Sylph who first appears as a dream, ultimately luring James into the woods, abandoning friends and his bride.  La Sylphide features exquisite classical technique, intriguing characters, and leaves questions for the audience to ponder about the choices we make. La Sylphide is one of the oldest full length classical ballets still in repertoires of major ballet companies across the globe.

International Ballet’s La Sylphide will feature Greenville Native Ekaterina Nechayeva as the Sylph.

Hendersonville Theatre proudly presents Asheville’s progressive ensemble, the Jon Stickley Trio, as April’s intimate Hometown Sound concert. The Jon Stickley Trio is rooted in bluegrass, but also incorporates Gypsy jazz, grunge, folk-punk and jam-band styles. This genre-defying and cinematic instrumental trio, who’s deep grooves, innovative flatpicking, and sultry-spacy violin moves heads, hearts, and feets “…churns out a mixture of bluegrass, Chuck Berry, metal, prog, grunge, and assorted other genres—all thoroughly integrated into a personal style,” writes Guitar Player Magazine. With inspiration ranging from Green Day to Duran Duran to to Nirvana and the Grateful Dead, the Trio has released several albums on the Organic Label and is currently touring nationally.

Jon Stickley plays flat-pick guitar; Lyndsay Pruett plays violin; Hunter Deacon plays drums. The trio began as a group of friends in Asheville, North Carolina.

Stickley is known for his rapid-fire flat-picking and his ability to blend different musical elements from across the board to create a sound that is all his own. The Durham native has been with various bands throughout the years, including Colorado’s legendary Broke Mountain.

Pruett is an extremely diverse fiddle player whose influences include bluegrass, swing, classical, Latin styles, country, and hip hop. Lyndsay has a BM in Commercial Violin Performance from Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

Deacon, who is both classically trained and boasts heavy jazz influences, joined the trio in 2018. From Knoxville, Hunter studied with drummer Keith Brown and received a BM in Studio Music and Jazz from the University of Tennessee.

From the songbook of Johnny Cash comes this unique musical about love and faith, struggle and success, rowdiness and redemption, and the healing power of home and family. More than two dozen classic hits including “I Walk the Line,” “A Boy Named Sue,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” and, of course, “Ring of Fire.” Performed by a multi-talented cast.

Director Ben Hope adds “Having spent many years working on various productions of Ring of Fire (this production will be my personal 10th!), The most extraordinary thing I keep finding about Mr. Cash is how unanimously loved he is, even now, 20 years since his death. No other project seems to attract such a varied and enthusiastic crowd as the music of Johnny Cash. I think it’s because he wrote for the ordinary. His words and music are authentic and simple, and he speaks plainly about things we all connect with. He was fallible, with personal demons and shortcomings. He makes us feel like our own imperfections are normal and mundane, and he teaches us that there’s beauty and hope, even in despair. I love Johnny Cash, and I know Flat Rock audiences are going to love Ring of Fire’.”

Don’t miss this inspiring story, all the great music, and an evening of iconic Johnny Cash!

Ring of Fire is presented by WHKP and Carolina Ace Hardware. Flat Rock Playhouse’s 2023 Season is supported by Charlotte & Bob Otto, Optimum, WHKP, and WTZQ as well as the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. www.NCArts.org

For a complete lineup with show descriptions and to purchase tickets, visit www.flatrockplayhouse.org.

FISH
By Cyndi Williams
Directed by Ashleigh Goff

When two characters connect unexpectedly in a lonely bar, they wind up playing a dangerous game. Who will survive, and how can they forgive themselves in the process?  Shifting timelines and unearthing skeletons, Fish is a fever dream twisting through memory, fantasy and the present.

– ALL AGES
– STANDING ROOM ONLY
– LIMITED NUMBER OF VIP MEET AND GREET PACKAGES AVAILABLE, INCLUDING: 
– One (1) general admission ticket to see Copeland live
– Early Entry
– 3 song pre-show acoustic performance and Q&A Session
– Meet and Greet / Photo with Copeland
– One (1) exclusive poster, signed by Copeland
– Crowd-free merchandise shopping

COPELAND
Longevity in music comes through pushing yourself and expanding the possibilities of your sound. This has never been more true for Copeland on their latest effort Blushing, a collection of 11 new tracks that advance and evolve everything the trio of musicians has done up until now. The band,
which originally formed in Lakeland, Florida in 2001, has unveiled six albums, spanning from their 2003’s debut Beneath Medicine Tree to 2016’s Ixora. While they began as a rock band, Copeland’s music has explored multiple genres and pulled in various stylistic influences like electronic and symphonic. In the past the musicians have aptly melded these styles, creating a unique amalgam of sounds. This time they wanted to take each sound and style and push it to its logical extreme.

This nationally renowned company, led by a husband-and-wife duo, brings an exciting collection of contemporary choreography that’s as “sensual” (Washington Post) as it is “humorous, elegant, and wild” (Seattle Dances). Working with writers, musicians and storytellers, these cross-genre collaborators cultivate the craft of storytelling through movement — even choreographing music videos for Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso and Ben Phantom. Premiering in this performance is an all-new, exhilarating piece created just for the Wortham Center stage.

Connect with the Art and Artists

• Dance Workshop: Open level, 90-minute dance workshop for ages 16 and up. April 22 at 11 a.m. Henry LaBrun Studio. Learn more and register.
• Pre-show Discussions: April 21 & 22 at 7 p.m. Henry LaBrun Studio.

“This is a phenomenon.”- New York Magazine, Sara Holdren

All rise for Academy Award® winner Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork. The New York Times Critic’s Pick TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is “the most successful American play in Broadway history” (60 Minutes). With direction by Tony Award® winner Bartlett Sher, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD — “the greatest novel of all time” (Chicago Tribune) — has quickly become “one of the greatest plays in history” (NPR).

Emmy Award®-winning actor Richard Thomas will play the role of Atticus Finch in the National Tour.

all ages