Opening Nights - Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER & SHAWN COLVIN

FALL 2023–24

CHANGING THE LIVES THAT CHANGE THE WORLD

Carlos Rodriguez, B.S. Management Information Systems and B.S. Marketing, 2021 Shanquell Dixon, Doctor of Medicine, 2022

thank you to our SPONSORS

PLATINUM LEVEL

DIAMOND LEVEL

SILVER LEVEL

MIKEY BESTEBREURTJE & WILSON BAKER

BRONZE

CHRIS & BETH CORUM KIMBERLY CRISER

DEBBY

IN-KIND SPONSORS & ENDOWMENTS

MARJORIE TURNBULL

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Opening Nights at Florida State University is excited to bring the very best performing arts, music, dance, comedy, literature and visual arts to our campus and community.

The first half of the 23–24 season features award-winning artists, beginning with acclaimed folk singers Mary Chapin Carpenter with Shawn Colvin at Ruby Diamond Concert Hall. This folk duo will share their musical hits at this memorable concert. The season continues with two-time, GRAMMY® Awardwinning artists Ranky Tanky at Opperman Music Hall. These inspiring artists specialize in jazz-influenced arrangements of traditional Gullah music, a culture that originated among descendants of enslaved Africans in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. Southeast.

ON continues its October lineup with Miamibased dance company Adele Myers and Dancers at the Nancy Smith Fichter Theater, in collaboration with the School of Dance. The dance company presents a newly created work called T.W.I.S.T, a foot stomping, soul quaking and heart pounding dance theater performance performed by five female athletes who embody Myers’ signature fusion of personal theatricality and robust physicality. International sensations the Gipsy Kings take the Adderley Amphitheater by storm with their signature blend of rumba, salsa and flamenco music.

New this season is a fun and unique boots and jeans outdoor performance by Hot Club of Cowtown at the beautiful Phipps Farm on Meridian. Join us for an outstanding western swing music experience, complete with food trucks, bars and plenty of fun.

In November, we kick off the holiday season with two exciting performances beginning

with Broadway’s Next Hit Musical’s The Phony Awards. This fully improvised performance features memorable characters, hilarious dialogue, song and dance. Who will win the award?

November continues with Opening Nights’ first Goodwood Series concert at the Goodwood Museum and Gardens featuring Grammy nominated Della Mae. Don’t miss these amazing ladies performing their heartwarming, bluegrass melodies.

Finally, we end 2023 with a holiday concert for the whole family, featuring a family of musicians. MacMaster & Leahy Celtic Family Christmas will delight all ages with a family Christmas concert. Known as Canada’s reigning couple of Celtic music, they are sure to delight. Join us at Opperman Music Hall on December 7.

I cannot think of a better time and opportunity to become a member of Opening Nights and to show your support of our mission to present exceptional artists — 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.

Thank you for sharing the first half of our 23–24 season with us. We look forward to many more outstanding performances coming your ways in Tallahassee’s Bicentennial Year, 2024.

Jennifer Wright Director, Opening Nights at FSU

Florida State University

Richard McCullough President

Opening Nights Staff

Jennifer Wright Director

Caroline Poole

Development Director

Grace Atkins Program & Operations Manager

Brad Lister

Business & Patron Services Manager

Calla MacNamara Education & Engagement Manager

Noelle Enright

Marketing & Communications Associate

Amanda Cole Graphic Designer, FSU Marketing

Rodney H. Johnson Assistant Director of FSU Marketing

Opening Nights Development Council

Eric Friall, Chair

Ron Sachs, Vice Chair

Gus Corbella, Immediate-Past Chair

Susan Stratton, Secretary

Kathleen Daly

Brooke Hallock

David Mica, Jr.

Heather Mitchell

Nan Nagy

Tom Nelson

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

OCTOBER

1 Mary Chapin Carpenter & Shawn Colvin Americana, Folk

5 Ranky Tanky Roots, Blues

12 Adele Myers and Dancers Dance

20 The Gipsy Kings World, Latin

26 Hot Club of Cowtown Western Swing

NOVEMBER

1 Broadway’s Next Hit Musical Comedy, Improv

7 Della Mae Bluegrass

DECEMBER

7 MacMaster & Leahy Celtic Family Christmas Celtic, Holiday

JANUARY

10 Elvis Costello Rock, Alternative

11 Jesse Cook Flamenco, Jazz Guitar

18 Delirium Musicum

Contemporary Chamber Music

Proud to partner with Opening Nights to provide cultural opportunities for the Boys and Girls Club of the Big Bend

Opening Nights, Opening Doors is a partner program of Prime Meridian Bank, FSU Opening Nights, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Big Bend. Now in its third year, the program provides on-campus experiences for Club members to inspire a vision of future opportunities in the areas of engineering, nursing, hospitality, and (coming soon) media and the arts.

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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.

“

I regard the theatre 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

Saluting OPENING

at Florida State University

Thank you to our In-Kind Sponsors

Beth & Lawton Langford Endowment

Culture Builds Florida

FSU College of Music

FSU Alumni Association

Goodwood Museum & Gardens

Kelly & Laurie Dozier Endowment Fund

Lamar

Leon High School Band

Louise

National Endowment for the Arts

Phipps Farm

Poco Vino

Rowland Publishing/ Tallahassee Magazine

Social Catering & Events

Tallahassee Democrat

Ireland Humphrey Excellence Fund

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1

Ruby Diamond Concert Hall • 7:30 PM

Mary

& Shawn Colvin Together on Stage

Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin—longtime friends for over 30 years—will appear on stage together as an intimate acoustic duo, swapping songs and sharing stories. These special shows will feature the acclaimed songwriters performing material from their vast catalogues as well as some of their favorite songs. Carpenter and Colvin are two of the most important singer-songwriters of our time. Their music has touched the lives of millions of people around the world and their songs will continue to be enjoyed for generations to come. The "Together on Stage" tour will celebrate their friendship and their shared love of music. It is sure to be a special event for fans of both artists.

Continued on pg. 21

Sponsor LEE HINKLE

Chapin Carpenter

“...through their friendship and music, [they] provide us with the spirit needed for the healing of our culture today.”

— San Diego Troubador

THEATRE TCC! 2023-24 SEASON COME JOURNEY WITH US!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

By Ray Bradbury

When the carnival comes to town, two boys unearth the terrifying and horrible secrets that lurk within Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show and learn the consequences of wishes, as a sinister and evil force is at work in Green Town, Illinois.

October 12-14 at 8 p.m.

October 20 & 21 at 8 p.m.

October 22 at 2 p.m.

The Shape of Things

By Neil Labute

A young student drifts into an ever-changing relationship with an art major while his best friend’s engagement crumbles, unleashing a drama that peels back the skin of two modern-day relationships.

November 16-18 at 8 p.m.

December 1 & 2 at 8 p.m.

December 3 at 2 p.m.

Legally Blonde

Book by Heather Hach

Music and Lyrics By Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin

The ultimate tribute to girl power, Legally Blonde will take you from the UCLA sorority house to the Harvard halls of justice with the timely coming-of-age story of Broadway’s brightest heroine.

April 4-6 at 8 p.m.

April 12 & 13 at 8 p.m.

April 14 at 2 p.m.

Mary Chapin Carpenter & Shawn Colvin

Continued from pg. 19

MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER

With hits like “Passionate Kisses” and “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her,” Mary Chapin Carpenter has won five GRAMMY® Awards (with 16 nominations), two CMA awards, two Academy of Country Music awards and is one of only fifteen female members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Over the course of her acclaimed career, Carpenter has sold over 16 million records. In 2020, Carpenter recorded two albums—The Dirt And The Stars, released in August 2020, and One Night Lonely, recorded live without an audience at the legendary Filene Center at Wolf Trap in Virginia during the COVID-19 shut down, and nominated for “Best Folk Album” at the 64th GRAMMY Awards in 2022.

Of the new album The Dirt And The Stars, produced by Ethan Johns (Ray LaMontagne, Paul McCartney, Kings of Leon) and recorded entirely live at Peter Gabriel’s Real World

Studios in Bath in southwest England, Carpenter quotes the writer Margaret Renkl, “‘We are all in the process of becoming.’ That doesn’t stop at a certain age. To be always a student of art and music and life, as she says, that, to me, is what makes life worth living. The songs are very personal and they’re difficult in some ways, and definitely come from places of pain and self-illumination, but also places of joy, discovery and the rewards of self- knowledge. They arrived from looking outward as much as inward, speaking to life changes, growing older, politics, compassion, #metoo, heartbreak, empathy, the power of memory, time and place. There are many themes, but they all come back to that initial truth that we are all constantly ‘becoming’ through art and expression.”

SHAWN COLVIN

Shawn Colvin stopped the industry in its tracks with her arresting 1989 debut, Steady On. The following spring, Colvin took home the GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, establishing herself as a mainstay in the singer-songwriter genre. In the ensuing 30 years, Colvin has won three GRAMMY Awards, released 13 superlative

Mary Chapin Carpenter

photo by Aaron Farrington

albums, written a critically acclaimed memoir, maintained a non-stop national and international touring schedule, appeared on countless television and radio programs, had her songs featured in major motion pictures and created a remarkable canon of work.

Colvin triumphed at the 1998 GRAMMY Awards, winning both Record and Song of the Year for the Top 10 hit "Sunny Came Home," from the platinum-selling album A Few Small Repairs.

Her inspiring and candid memoir, Diamond In The Rough, was published in by Harper Collins in 2012. Diamond In The Rough looks back over Colvin's rich lifetime of highs and lows with stunning insight and candor. Through its pages we witness the story of a woman honing her artistry, finding her voice, and making herself whole.

Shawn Colvin was recognized for her career accomplishments when she was honored with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award by the Americana Music Association. Presenting her with this prestigious award

was Bonnie Raitt. Said Raitt, "She's simply one of the best singers I've ever heard— and a truly gifted and deep songwriter and guitarist... She was groundbreaking when she emerged and continues to inspire me and the legions of fans and other singer/songwriters coming up in her wake."

In September 2019, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Steady On, Colvin released a newly-recorded version of her landmark debut. Colvin crafts a truly mesmerizing reinvention, performing the album with just her voice and guitar. The Steady On 30th Anniversary Acoustic Edition strips each song to the core, placing Colvin's songwriting masterclass on full display. "I've played these songs countless times, primarily as a solo acoustic artist," she says. "all in all, this is the incarnation that feels most genuine. This represents who I am as an artist and all I ever wanted to be, and I believe it does its predecessor proud."

Colvin was recently honored with an induction into the 2019 Austin City Limits Hall of Fame, alongside legendary artists Lyle Lovett and Buddy Guy. In a moving induction speech, Jackson Browne praised her as "ineffable"—'that which is impossible to express in words'—and extolled, "Not many writers are able to do what Shawn does. It's a very special way of relating what really matters. It takes an original to get our attention. Shawn is utterly original in her singing, and original in what she speaks about in her songs."

Over the course of three decades, Shawn Colvin has established herself as a captivating performer and a revered storyteller, welldeserving of the commendation of her peers and the devoted audiences who have been inspired by her artistry. And as she enters her third decade as a songwriter and performer, she continues to reaffirm her status as a vital voice in music.

Shawn Colvin

Ken Kato & Nan Nagy

Proud Supporters of Opening Nights and

Dr. Linda J. Smith

Full STEAM ahead—add the Arts to STEM! Support teachers and education!

Berger Singerman proudly supports Florida State University's Opening Nights and its efforts in bolstering arts education within the Tallahassee community

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Hot Club of Cowtown