Opening Nights - Ranky Tanky

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

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MIKEY BESTEBREURTJE & WILSON BAKER

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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

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

24 Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson: “A Cosmic Perspective” Speaker

Cover photo by Sully Sullivan

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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✽ Member for 5 years or more

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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

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5

Opperman Music Hall • 7:30 PM

Ranky Tanky

This two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning, South Carolina-based quintet performs timeless music born from the Gullah culture of the southeastern Sea Islands. Their debut album was featured on NPR and the TODAY Show. It also soared to the #1 position on the Billboard, Amazon, and iTunes Jazz Charts. Playful game songs, ecstatic shouts, and heartbreaking spirituals can all be found on their latest release Good Time, which also offers the group’s first original songs inspired by Gullah tradition.

Continued on pg. 21

Sponsor THE LOUISE IRELAND HUMPHREY FUND

In collaboration with FSU COLLEGE OF MUSIC

Tickets

$40

Genre ROOTS, BLUES

“Ranky Tanky's music is relentlessly upbeat and infectious.”

— JazzTimes

Photo by Sully Sullivan

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.

Ranky Tanky

Continued from pg. 19

Quentin Baxter / Drums and Percussion

Kevin Hamilton / Bass

Quiana Parler / Vocalist

Clay Ross / Guitar and Vocals

Charlton Singleton / Trumpet and Vocals

Ranky Tanky (a Gullah phrase for “get funky”) are five lifelong friends from Charleston, South Carolina, who have established themselves as passionate global ambassadors for their local culture and community, helping to faithfully preserve the traditions originated by African Americans in the coastal South during slavery that are kept alive through the present day.

Fresh from a 2023 Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album, Ranky Tanky are celebrating their second Grammy win in a four-year span. Celebrating the music of their West African-rooted Gullah community, Ranky Tanky were honored in 2023 for their first-ever live album Live at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival—which was captured during their debut at the iconic festival last year. Ranky Tanky previously took home Best Regional Roots Music Album in 2020 for their studio album Good Time, marking the first-ever Grammy Award win for an album of Gullah music. The five-piece have now won Best Regional Roots Album for two consecutive releases and become the most awarded group in the history of the category.

"Live performance is at the heart of what we do as Ranky Tanky and to be recognized for our inaugural set on the historic New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival stage is a high honor," the band said during their acceptance speech. "Once again, it is an honor to be able to stand on the shoulders of our Gullah Ancestry and continue to bring this music and message to the world!"

The 2023 GRAMMY win is just the latest accolade in a long line of 'firsts' that Ranky Tanky has achieved for the music of the Gullah community. The five-piece also reached #1 on each of the Billboard, Amazon and iTunes jazz charts, brought their songs and stories to national television on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The TODAY Show and PBS Newshour—and even performed during President Joe Biden's 2020 inauguration festivities.

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

FORT LAUDERDALE | MIAMI | ORLANDO | TALLAHASSEE | TAMPA | WEST PALM BEACH

Jim & Betty Ann Rodgers

Debby Kearney

Richard Scott Kearney

thank Opening Nights for their commitment to the arts in our community

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Janet R. Thornton

Hot Club of Cowtown