Opening Nights - Colson Whitehead

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from the director

on behalf of Opening Nights, we are thrilled to share the second half of our 25th Anniversary Season with you! We’ve saved the best for last this spring with so many incredible performances coming your way. In February, we kick off the vibrant lineup with:

The Other Mozart by Sylvia Milo at Turner Auditorium on February 4. This captivating one-woman show tells the story of Mozart’s forgotten sister, Nannerl, a piano virtuoso in her own right. Television, stage and film star Katharine McPhee will perform live at the home of the FSU President on February 6.

A month-long celebration of Black History Month kicks off with Step Afrika! on February 7 and is sure to delight all ages with an exciting blend of percussive dance styles that integrate songs, storytelling and humor. Pulitzer Prize winning author, Colson Whitehead will speak on February 9 about his writings and engage the audience with insightful discussion.

The Queens of Soul, Morgan James and Erica Gabriel take center stage with our very own Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra on February 11 for a celebration of the music of Motown, R&B and soul; celebrate Valentine’s Day with a breathtaking performance by contemporary dance company MOMIX and their visually stunning repertoire entitled Alice, inspired by Alice in Wonderland; and Ethiopian jazz singer, Meklit, will perform on February 28.

French-based Zodiac Trio will perform Benny Rides Again, a celebration of the songs of Benny Goodman on March 3; country and folk music legend Emmylou Harris takes the Ruby Diamond stage on March 4 for an unforgettable evening of the music that has thrived for more than 50 years; theatre fans get ready for New York Gilbert & Sullivan Player’s The Mikado on March 11 for a matinee performance; and families won’t want to miss

Legendary late-night comedian and television host Jay Leno will pack Ruby Diamond for a memorable evening of laughs on March 29; Opening Nights continues its collaboration with the Chain of Parks Arts Festival with digital media artist John Ensor Parker on April 13; FSU’s PRISM is back with its traditional spring performance on April 16; and the season concludes with Piano Battle, a rollicking good time, on April 25.

Sponsorships and memberships make each season possible, and we are very grateful to the many people who have generously supported us this season. As we continue to celebrate the Opening Nights 25-year legacy into the next season, we invite you to renew or become a member or a sponsor of our 2023–24 Season. From town to gown, Opening Nights is a vital university and community performing arts program with a mission worthy of supporting and celebrating! These performances create a thriving cultural life in our community and create priceless educational experiences on campus and throughout the community. Ask any Opening Nights associate about these philanthropic opportunities. We hope you join us!

Thank you again for your support of the Opening Nights 25th Anniversary Season at Florida State University. Please enjoy these outstanding performances!

Jennifer Wright Director, Opening Nights at Florida State University

The Jungle Book performed live by the Panto Company on March 23.

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Carlos Rodriguez, College of Business Shanquell Dixon, College of Medicine

Florida State University

Richard McCullough President

Opening Nights Staff

Jennifer Wright Director

Lori Elliott Development Director

Grace Atkins Program & Operations Manager

Brad Lister Business & Patron Services Manager

Calla MacNamara Education & Engagement Manager

Nick DiChiara Patron Services Coordinator

Noelle Enright Marketing Associate

Amanda Cole Graphic Designer University Communications, Creative Services

Rodney Johnson Assistant Director of Creative Services University Communications, Creative Services

Opening Nights Development Council

Eric Friall, Chair

Gus Corbella, Immediate-Past Chair

Susan Stratton, Secretary

Kathleen Daly

Brooke Hallock

John Marks

David Mica, Jr.

Heather Mitchell

Nan Nagy

Tom Nelson

Ron Sachs

Florida State University

Office of the President

College of Fine Arts

College of Motion Picture Arts College of Music

College of Social Sciences & Public Policy

FSU Panama City

University Communications

University Relations

upcoming performances

february

9 Colson Whitehead author, speaker

Sponsored by Bernadette & Roger Luca

11 Queens of Soul with Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra tribute, orchestral, r&b

14 MOMIX dance

Sponsored by Taylor Blackburn Family Fund

28 Meklit

jazz, world music, vocal

Sponsored by FSU License Plate

march

3 Zodiac Trio

instrumental, jazz

4 Emmylou Harris country, Americana

Sponsored by Lee Hinkle, Ken Kato & Nan Nagy

11 New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players: The Mikado

opera, comedy, musical theatre

Sponsored by Taylor Blackburn Family Fund

23 The Jungle Book family, theatre

Sponsored by Centennial Bank & Kessler Construction

29 Jay Leno comedy

Sponsored by Peter Boulware Toyota

april

13 John Ensor Parker: Chain of Parks Art Festival Presenting Artist speaker, visual arts

Sponsored by Laurie & Kelly Dozier Endowment

Cover photo: Colson Whitehead photo by Chris Close

Stay connected to Tallahassee’s latest activities and attractions. Read Tallahassee Magazine in print and online, plus like and follow on social media for the latest events and happenings. @tallahasseemag | tallahasseemagazine. com

Stay connected to Tallahassee’s latest activities and attractions. Read Tallahassee Magazine in print and online, plus like and follow on social media for the latest events and happenings. @tallahasseemag | tallahasseemagazine. com

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Congratulations Opening Nights for fostering the Arts in Tallahassee for the past 25 years.

The students, faculty, and staff of FSU and the citizens of north Florida have been enriched by your efforts.

We eagerly await what the next 25 years will bring.

colson whitehead

Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad (an Oprah’s Book Club selection and winner of the 2016 National Book Award and 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and one collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. He was named New York’s 11th State Author in 2018. His New York Times bestseller The Nickel Boys won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (making him only the fourth writer to win two Pulitzers in the Fiction category), the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Fiction, and the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. His latest bestselling novel, Harlem Shuffle, was published in the fall of 2021.

Continued on pg. 23

Photo by Chris Close

Ken Kato & Nan Nagy

Proud Sponsor of Opening Nights and Emmy Lou Harris

LeMoyne Chain of Parks Art Festival Presenting Artist

John Ensor Parker

April 13, 2023

Art Festival April 15-16

Our gift supports two highly successful visual and performing arts presenters to collaborate and provide a unique, cultural experience for our community.

Laurie & Kelly Dozier Endowment

WHERE GREAT SERVICE IS ALWAYS THE STAR OF THE SHOW

Colson Whitehead

Continued from pg. 19

Colson Whitehead was born in 1969 and was raised in Manhattan.

After graduating from Harvard College, he started working at the Village Voice, where he wrote reviews of television, books and music. His first novel, The Intuitionist, concerned intrigue in the Department of Elevator Inspectors, and was a finalist for the PEN/ Hemingway and a winner of the Quality Paperback Book Club’s New Voices Award.

John Henry Days followed in 2001, an investigation of the steel-driving man of American folklore. It was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Fiction Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. The novel received the Young Lions Fiction Award and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

The Colossus of New York is a book of essays about the city. It was published in 2003 and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Apex Hides the Hurt (2006), a novel about a “nomenclature consultant” who gets an assignment to name a town, was a recipient of the PEN/Oakland Award.

Sag Harbor, published in 2009, is a novel about teenagers hanging out in Sag Harbor, Long Island during the summer of 1985. It was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

Zone One (2011), about post-apocalyptic New York City, was a New York Times Bestseller.

The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky & Death, a non-fiction account of the 2011 World Series of Poker, appeared in 2014.

The Underground Railroad, a novel, was published in the summer of 2016. It won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Carnegie Medal for Fiction, and was a #1 New York Times Bestseller.

The Nickel Boys is a novel inspired by the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Florida. It won the Pulitzer Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. His latest novel Harlem Shuffle was published in fall 2021.

Colson Whitehead’s reviews, essays, and

fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta

He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, A Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

In 2018, New York State named him their New York State Author, and in 2020 the Library

of Congress awarded him their Prize for American Fiction.

He has taught at the University of Houston, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, New York University, Princeton University, Wesleyan University, and been a Writer-in-Residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and the University of Wyoming. Apparently, he can’t keep a job.

He lives in New York City.

Photo by Madeline Whitehead

I regard the

as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.

- - Thornton Wilder