Rialto Center for the Arts Gets Funky and Animated with Fall 2023 Season Events

By Nicolas Wolaver

Downtown Atlanta will get funky and animated when the Rialto Center for the Arts kicks off its 2023-2024 Rialto Series themed Holding The Light, exploring how the arts inspire hope in challenging times.

The high-energy season kicks off Oct. 14 with a two-time Grammy winning ensemble named after the Gullah phrase for “get funky”: Ranky Tanky, with special guest Ms. Lisa Fischer, herself a two-time Grammy winner.

With roots tethered to the Sea Islands, Ranky Tanky combines songs handed down through generations, performing works from their Billboard-ranked No. 1 album “Good Time” featuring a funk fusion of R&B and Gullah.

Audiences will embrace Fischer, who appeared prominently in the Oscarwinning documentary “20 Feet from Stardom” in which she sang the female lyrics of “Gimme Shelter” with Mick Jagger and performed her own hit single “How Can I Ease The Pain.”

The season continues Nov. 11 with The Queen’s Cartoonists, a New York-based ensemble that meticulously recreates soundtracks from over 100 years of animation, perfectly synchronizing their instruments to classic cartoons projected on screen.

Matching the energy of the drawn action while leading audiences through a world of virtuosic musicianship, their multi-instrumental mayhem and comedy features favorites like 1943’s Looney Tunes classic “Yankee Doodle Daffy” or Henry Mancini’s 1963 theme for “The Pink Panther.”

The Rialto celebrates the changing seasons with the 26th Annual Holiday Gala presented by the Georgia State School of Music on Dec. 3. Audiences will enjoy this highly anticipated concert, now a tradition of over 25 years, featuring talented students and faculty presenting a joyful celebration.

The season’s theme Holding the Light draws inspiration quoted by an unknown sage who stated, “The greatest challenge of being alive: To witness the injustice of this world, and not allow it to consume our light.”

Rialto Executive Director Lee Foster explains, “The long success of our venue is based on the foundation of Holding the Light, with the arts figuratively serving as a beacon of light, inspiring encouragement for all in Atlanta.”

Free (validated) parking is available at the 100 Peachtree Parking Garage for all Rialto Series shows. Purchase tickets at Rialto.GSU.edu.

Oglethorpe University’s Dynamic Fall Lineup Includes “Fairycakes” Production and Fall Music Gala

Discover Oglethorpe University’s thriving arts community! Here, it’s all about the experience — for our students and our audiences.

Conant Performing Arts Center, the university’s premier venue, stages both student and professional theatre productions and music performances throughout the year.

This 2023-2024 season begins with a student production of the off-Broadway comedy “Fairycakes,” a musical romp that asks: “What are the fairies of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ up to when not on duty in the enchanted forest?” Far away from home, fairy King and Queen Oberon and Titania have found themselves spirited away to other classic fairytale worlds in this hilarious and fantastical mashup of Shakespeare and the Brothers Grimm. “Fairycakes” is on the Conant stage October. 20-21 and 26-29.

Later, on Nov. 3, Oglethorpe’s musical ensembles — including the chorus, orchestra, and jazz ensemble — will perform a lively repertoire at the yearly Fall Music Gala. With a variety of musical talents on display, this free community concert is an engaging showcase of the university’s emerging performers.

Following the highly reviewed run of

“Urinetown” earlier this year, Oglethorpe is once again teaming up with Atlanta theatre company Actor’s Express for a spring musical co-production featuring student performers alongside professional actors. Direct from London’s West End, “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” is a bombastic musical that tells the story of a young performer who dreams of being a famous drag queen. “Jamie” is on stage at Conant starting February 15. The Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, located in historic Lowry Hall, hosts free exhibitions throughout the year, plus concerts, lectures and workshops. “Yehimi Cambrón: Documenting the Undocumented in the South” and “Fritz Paul Zimmer, 50th Anniversary Exhibition” are on view through October 15. OUMA’s Skylight Gallery Concert Series welcomes guest performers throughout the year to perform in the museum’s spacious Skylight Gallery. On November 12, Atlanta classical guitar group Duo Catanza will fill the halls with music ranging from renaissance to modern. View Oglethorpe’s full calendar of performing arts events, plus museum exhibitions, lectures, book and poetry readings, and more at oglethor.pe/ARTS.