Calendar of Events

These two one act plays, twinned in theme, display the struggles of sexual abuse, and the aftermath; which is healing. The stories of two different persons are speaking the truth – or a truth – their truths – about going through this harsh and mind blowing journey. This powerful show has a bold message with a light at the end of the tunnel. Truth Be Told is written and directed by Monica McDaniel.

Truth Be Told will open the 2019-20 35below season and is also the inaugural play in Asheville Community Theatre’s Artistic Horizons program, a program that gives local artists the opportunity to pursue new creative paths in the theatre.

Hickory Nut Gap Farm and the National Young Farmers Coalition (NYFC) have joined together to celebrate all those interested in pursuing a career in agriculture.

On Thursday, September 26th from 5pm to 9pm, all new and future farmers are invited to spend the evening enjoying a buffet of farm-raised bbq, drinks, and fellowship. To start the evening, attendees will enjoy a guided square dancing icebreaker, followed by live music by Bull Moose Party and finally an update from the NYFC on their tireless efforts on capitol hill lobbying for young farmers.

“With the average age of farm owners in the U.S. approaching 60 and all of the food-related challenges ahead of us in the coming decades it can often feel hopeless and daunting to be involved with agriculture in the 21st century. But the truth is, there is hope, there are more and more young and beginning farmers joining our food system every day; but with such a decentralized form of production, these young farmers often don’t have many options to connect with each other, network, and feel encouraged,” says Hickory Nut Gap farm director, Asher Wright. “Here at HNG we have a great event space and kitchen with the capacity to host an event, and so we are very excited to welcome the next generation of producers to our farm to connect with each other and be assured that nobody is alone in this industry.”

5p-6pm: Mingle and Official Welcome

6pm-9pm: Complimentary dinner, drinks, live music

Dinner: BBQ, farm-to-fork sides, fresh breads all prepared by our culinary team at Hickory Nut Gap Farm

Drinks: Each attendee will receive two (2) complimentary drink tickets that can be used for beer, wine, or specialty soft drinks. Water and tea are unlimited. Additional beverages available to purchase.

Beginner’s workshop lesson at 7:30 P.M., then 8-11 P.M. Contra Dance with Country Waltzing at the break and the final dance. This is a partner dance but it’s not necessary to come with a partner. We have different live bands and callers.

About the show: A renowned writer has it all, fortune, fame, women and adoration, when one excruciating miscalculation causes him to lose everything. As penance he hides away in a small New England town where he runs a bookstore in a shambling farmhouse. Then comes a knock on his door. Can the lost be found? Can the sinner gain redemption?

Cinematastic: The Music of the Movies promises to capture the emotional and cultural impact of films that have defined multiple generations. Movies like The Jazz Singer, The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Top Gun, inspired millions with their relevance and innovation, so much so that these films have been preserved in the National Film Registry for cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance. While these films set milestones, their true success came from the ability to create iconic moments that struck a profound chord in the hearts of audiences.

About the show: A renowned writer has it all, fortune, fame, women and adoration, when one excruciating miscalculation causes him to lose everything. As penance he hides away in a small New England town where he runs a bookstore in a shambling farmhouse. Then comes a knock on his door. Can the lost be found? Can the sinner gain redemption?

About the show: A renowned writer has it all, fortune, fame, women and adoration, when one excruciating miscalculation causes him to lose everything. As penance he hides away in a small New England town where he runs a bookstore in a shambling farmhouse. Then comes a knock on his door. Can the lost be found? Can the sinner gain redemption?

Let your little light shine for The SPARC Foundation as we sparkle and glow (feel free to wear your boldest and brightest) along the French Broad River! Hosted by Asheville Affiliates, SPARC After Dark will light up the night to raise funds for programs working to keep people out of institutional care. Modern Strangers will fill the autumn air with high-energy music… and the event will overflow with tasty local food and drinks from Urban Orchard, Roots Hummus, Catabaw Brewing, Mellow Mushroom, and more. Expect spectacular raffle packages and local prizes.

The SPARC Foundation

Catapult is, technically, a shadow dance company.  What it really is:  a theatrical art form that is an amazingly imaginative combination of dance, story-telling, and sculpture.   Founded in 2009, by Adam Battlestein (choreographer, Creative Director and Master Teaching Artist for Pilobolus Dance Theatre for 19 years), Catapult catapulted to fame on Season 8 of America’s Got Talent, earning their way to the finals of the NBC-TV hit show.

Catapult is all about the human body and its ability to transform.  The talented Catapult dancers work behind a screen to create seemingly impossible dancing shadow silhouettes of shapes from the world around us. You won’t believe your eyes as you watch these incredible dancers become a mountain, a full size elephant, a helicopter, a house with a window and people inside the window.  You will never figure out how they do it, and you won’t know what they will make next – you will be surprised and delighted again and again. Audiences of all ages love what appear to be effortless transformations and applaud over and over as more and more unbelievable images appear.

Catapult’s “Magic Shadows” show is packed with hundreds of shape transformations, and it is full of humor, emotion, and engaging stories.  There are 8 fully realized stories told through music and shadows and 6 short shadow dance videos which play between the live dances – brief moments of poetry or humor which perfectly cleanse the palate and prepare the audience for their next shadow journey.  Audiences leave this show dazed and happy, and they will never look at their own shadow the same way again!

A troupe of traveling actors are desperate to find their way home after many days on the road. Stranded and down on their luck, this commedia dell’arte troupe finally encounter a wealthy patron who promises them the money, but only if they improvise a play, to his liking, on the dauntingly large subject: The History of Man. The problem is the troupe is dysfunctional and has lost their ability to improvise. Nonetheless, they soldier on starting with the Garden of Eden through Everyman in birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Along the way they enact other wayward adventures such as the assassination of Julius Caesar and the homecoming of Odysseus. It is during the performance, the troupe rediscovers themselves and their art through a series of comical and sometimes heartwarming scenes.

Show Dates: October 3rd – 5th @ 7:30 pm; October 6th @ 2 pm. 

Nobuntu — Thursday, October 3, 2019, 8 p.m. The five voices of Nobuntu echo with power and intensity, emanating pure joy while embodying the spirit of the artists’ Zimbabwe home. An all-female a cappella vocal quintet, Nobuntu draws international acclaim for its inventive performances that are accompanied by minimalistic percussion, traditional instruments and organic, authentic dance movements

Underwear Comedy Party is a night of nearly nude laughs. All the comedians will be performing in their underwear and we encourage the audience to strip down too!

doors at 8pm, show at 9pm

Tickets $10
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/underwear-comedy-party-avl-tickets-70332354967

Please join us on October 4, from 5 to 8 pm for the opening party. Performance of “Nona’s Cooking Show” marionette show is at 6:30.

Exhibit open 10 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, at 207 Coxe Ave, downtown Asheville, through October 25.

“Street Creatures and Dancing Beasts” will celebrate Asheville’s vibrant puppetry scene as an Asheville Area Arts Council exhibit. It will display puppets made by local artists showing diverse styles and forms in a range of sizes and materials. A menagerie of animals, both real and imaginary, will  dance around the gallery. Puppetry is often relegated to the world of children’s entertainment, but this art form is ancient, multi faceted and almost limitless in scope. It requires the skills of an artist, tinkerer and performer, writer, musician and dancer.

Curator and artist Jennifer Murphy is one of the founders of Street Creature Puppet Collective, and “den mother” of the Puppet Clubhouse, a bright and lively community art space in North Asheville. Her work brings nature and myth together in ecological pageants. The other artists included use diverse visual styles and approaches.

Represented are long time puppetry master Hobey Ford, winner of puppetry’s highest honor, the UNIMA Citation of Excellence; Luce Romaldini, who’s rough charming cardboard figures tell uncomfortable truths; Edwin Salas, international puppeteer and dancer who conjures strange creatures of the dark side; Jim Julien, graphic designer and co-director of the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival; Chris Eizember, creative tinkerer and bamboo sculptor; Geneva Bierce-Wilson, fiber artist, inventor and maker of small dragons and large worms; and Street Creature Puppet Collective, a community of collaborative parade puppet makers.

? ASHEVILLE CONCERT THIS FRIDAY!

I am STOKED to bring this transformational music and movement concert experience to the Asheville Community at Violet Owl Wellness in Downtown Asheville!

Asheville was an oasis for me growing up in East Tennessee. I could just drive over the most beautiful mountains to find myself in a fresh new perspective on life. I saw some of the best concerts in Asheville while in high school and it is full circle for me to now bring my music to this beautiful city.

RSVP now @ Cornflower at Asheville NC and tag (or invite) your Asheville friends in the comments below!

See you on the Dance Floor!
ALL LOVE, Cornflower

MPP’s funniest, most-original and most-FREE show has been getting RAVES!

It’s not too early to make your plans to travel down the yellow brick road to the merry old land of Oz! We’re deep into the rehearsal process, are building the sets and the costumes, and are hearing LOTS of super cool ideas from the artistic team!

• Opening Weekend and Thursday night tickets are cheaper than other performances ($26 for adults vs $30)
• Tickets for children 17 and under are $15 for any Wizard of Oz performance!
• Keep up with what’s happening in rehearsals with the “We’re Off to See the Wizard” blog series written by our Cowardly Lion, John O’Neil!

A troupe of traveling actors are desperate to find their way home after many days on the road. Stranded and down on their luck, this commedia dell’arte troupe finally encounter a wealthy patron who promises them the money, but only if they improvise a play, to his liking, on the dauntingly large subject: The History of Man. The problem is the troupe is dysfunctional and has lost their ability to improvise. Nonetheless, they soldier on starting with the Garden of Eden through Everyman in birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Along the way they enact other wayward adventures such as the assassination of Julius Caesar and the homecoming of Odysseus. It is during the performance, the troupe rediscovers themselves and their art through a series of comical and sometimes heartwarming scenes.

Show Dates: October 3rd – 5th @ 7:30 pm; October 6th @ 2 pm. 

The parents are out of town and the kids (local comedians) are running the show!
Come out to LaZoom for a night of comedy from Asheville’s best comics.

Tickets $10 advance, $12 day of
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moms-out-tonight-local-comedy-showcase-tickets-71017628639

MPP’s funniest, most-original and most-FREE show has been getting RAVES!

It’s not too early to make your plans to travel down the yellow brick road to the merry old land of Oz! We’re deep into the rehearsal process, are building the sets and the costumes, and are hearing LOTS of super cool ideas from the artistic team!

• Opening Weekend and Thursday night tickets are cheaper than other performances ($26 for adults vs $30)
• Tickets for children 17 and under are $15 for any Wizard of Oz performance!
• Keep up with what’s happening in rehearsals with the “We’re Off to See the Wizard” blog series written by our Cowardly Lion, John O’Neil!

A troupe of traveling actors are desperate to find their way home after many days on the road. Stranded and down on their luck, this commedia dell’arte troupe finally encounter a wealthy patron who promises them the money, but only if they improvise a play, to his liking, on the dauntingly large subject: The History of Man. The problem is the troupe is dysfunctional and has lost their ability to improvise. Nonetheless, they soldier on starting with the Garden of Eden through Everyman in birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Along the way they enact other wayward adventures such as the assassination of Julius Caesar and the homecoming of Odysseus. It is during the performance, the troupe rediscovers themselves and their art through a series of comical and sometimes heartwarming scenes.

Show Dates: October 3rd – 5th @ 7:30 pm; October 6th @ 2 pm. 

A troupe of traveling actors are desperate to find their way home after many days on the road. Stranded and down on their luck, this commedia dell’arte troupe finally encounter a wealthy patron who promises them the money, but only if they improvise a play, to his liking, on the dauntingly large subject: The History of Man. The problem is the troupe is dysfunctional and has lost their ability to improvise. Nonetheless, they soldier on starting with the Garden of Eden through Everyman in birth, adolescence, marriage and death. Along the way they enact other wayward adventures such as the assassination of Julius Caesar and the homecoming of Odysseus. It is during the performance, the troupe rediscovers themselves and their art through a series of comical and sometimes heartwarming scenes.

Show Dates: October 3rd – 5th @ 7:30 pm; October 6th @ 2 pm. 

It’s not too early to make your plans to travel down the yellow brick road to the merry old land of Oz! We’re deep into the rehearsal process, are building the sets and the costumes, and are hearing LOTS of super cool ideas from the artistic team!

• Opening Weekend and Thursday night tickets are cheaper than other performances ($26 for adults vs $30)
• Tickets for children 17 and under are $15 for any Wizard of Oz performance!
• Keep up with what’s happening in rehearsals with the “We’re Off to See the Wizard” blog series written by our Cowardly Lion, John O’Neil!

MPP’s funniest, most-original and most-FREE show has been getting RAVES!

NON-MUSICAL

Adapted by Mountain Community Theater from the novel by VALENTINE DAVIES, Based upon the 20th Century Fox motion picture

Directed by Candice Burchill

AUDITIONS: October 7-8, 2019
Monday, October 7: 6:00-9:00 pm
Tuesday, October 8: 6:00-9:00 pm

PRODUCTION DATES: December 5-20, 2019; Performances Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 7:30 pm, and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 pm; Cast must plan to arrive at least 1 hour prior to show time.

REHEARSALS: October 13 – November 30, 2019; Rehearsals generally held Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday nights from 6:30-9:30 pm. All actors will not necessarily be needed for every rehearsal or for the entire rehearsal. Full rehearsal calendar available at auditions – you are able to list any conflicts you have with the rehearsal schedule at this time.

DIRECTOR SEEKS: Large cast of men, women, children (6-11) and teens (12+). All roles open to actors of any race or ethnicity.

AUDITION INFO: TBD