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Business & Retail Briefs
Indonesian-inspired furniture, art and accessory store Gado Gado (gadogado. com) has moved to its new location in the West Midtown Design District, 1483-C Chattahoochee Ave. at Collier Road. (404) 352-8888.
The Merchant at Howell Mill (themerchantATL.com) boutique is now open at 993 Marietta St. selling stationary lines such as Rifle Paper Company, Jonathan Adler, Sugar Paper, Kate Spade, Bella Ink Designs & Lilly Pulitzer, among others, as well as coffee table books, greeting cards, candles and other chic gifts and accessories.
Contemporary furniture showroom Switch Modern (switchmodern.com) has moved into a new 25,000 square-foot location in West Midtown, 670 14th St. The new showroom features lines like Poliform, Minotti, Bocci, Flexform, B&B Italia Outdoor, FLOS, MDF Italia, Walter Knoll, Verpan and more. There’s also an expanded accessories division with an expansive selection of dishes, flatware, glassware and gifts.
18|8 Fine Men’s Salons (eighteeneight.com) will soon open three locations in Atlanta with the inaugural location in Buckhead at 305 Brookhaven Ave., Suite 1140. Offering hair care, facial treatments and scalp treatments, the first location should be open by summer.
Skinchanted (skinchanted.com) has opened in Berkeley Heights shopping center, 1700 Northside Drive. The shop offers handmade, natural skincare products. All products are made in store and can be customized by choosing your own fragrance, essential oils and additives.
The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is working to implement its new Atlanta Regional Economic Competitiveness Strategy. The ARC put together a group of business, civic, education and government leaders to assess the competitive strengths and weaknesses of the Atlanta region. Now, an implementation committee is working to bring that strategy to life with four primary goal areas: a more educated workforce, helping existing businesses be more productive and profitable, become a pipeline for innovative entrepreneurs and create more livable communities.
For its work on The Real Downtown video, Central Atlanta Progress received the top honor from the Atlanta Chapter of The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) at the recent Golden Flame Awards. The Real Downtown promotional video showcases a day in the life of Downtown workers, residents and students. Watch the video at http://youtu.be/lDzdqjh1FRE.
Hala Moddelmog has been elected president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber (metroatlantachamber.com). Moddelmog, a Georgia native, previously served as Arby’s Restaurant Group president, where she led the divestiture from public company to private ownership in a deal valued at more than $400 million. She also led Susan G. Komen for the Cure and was president of Church’s Chicken.
Atlanta-based architecture and design firm Lord Aeck Sargent (lordaecksargent. com) has opened a new office in Tyson’s Corner, Va. near Washington, D.C. “The D.C. market is robust and offers excellent opportunities in all of our practice areas,” said Tony Aeck, LAS chairman. He said the new office will focus on designing multi-family housing and mixed-use projects.
Host Hotels & Resorts has sold Atlanta’s Four Seasons Hotel to Cascade Investment Group, a company founded by Microsoft’s Bill Gates. The sale price was $62 million.
The WNBA Atlanta Dream will move its corporate headquarters to Centennial Tower, 101 Marietta St., early this year. The building, which also houses offices for the Hawks, Turner Broadcasting, StubHub and Associated Press, is just a short walk from the Dream’s home court at Philips Arena.
Atlanta Medical Center
Dr. Summers is a family medicine practitioner and her office sees children and adults. She has extended hours for flu shots and walk-ins (7:15-8:15 a.m. on Tuesday)
AERICA SUMMERS, MD, MPH
New Hours:
Monday & Wednesday 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Tuesday 7:15 a.m.-5 p.m.
Thursday 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
Friday 8 a.m.-12 p.m.
Flu vaccinations available.
Location: www.atlantamedcenter.com
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Janece Shaffer’s new play set during Atlanta Exposition premieres Jan. 15
By Collin Kelley INtown Editor
Janece Shaffer has Justin Bieber to thank for her latest play, The Geller Girls, which opens Jan. 15 at The Alliance Theatre.
What does the pop heartthrob have to do with a play about two Atlanta girls coming of age at the opening of the 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition in Piedmont Park?
“My daughter had to do a social studies project with a local theme and she wanted to write about Justin Bieber, since he lived and played here for awhile at the beginning of his career,” the multi-award winning playwright recalls. “I gave her some other ideas.”
Shaffer remembered reading about the Exposition, which was held in Piedmont Park for 100 days and visited by 800,000 people. The event is remembered for Booker T. Washington’s historic “Atlanta compromise” speech on race relations and the debut of an early movie projector, plus visitors from around the world flocking to the city.
The only vestiges of the giant Exposition left in the park are staircases, terraces and planters, but Shaffer saw a way to bring the event back to life while exploring the lives of two young women and their hopes and dreams on the verge of a new millennium.
As the play begins we find teenage sisters Louisa and Rosalee Geller preparing to go to opening day of the Exposition. Louisa can’t wait to see the sights and sounds of the exhibits from all the visiting countries, while Rosalee is completely uninterested, wanting only to open her own dress shop and viewing the Exposition as a distraction.
“The girls are changed by what they see in the park,” Shaffer says. “They see women speaking in public, suffragettes and independent women making their own way in the world. The play is not only about the Geller sisters coming of age, but Atlanta coming back from the Civil War. The Exposition said, ‘Atlanta is back on the map and we’re open for business – alive and thriving.” Shaffer, a third generation Atlantan, spent four years working on The Geller Girls and says, “It was a glorious play to write. I immersed myself in the time period – looking at photos, reading accounts of the Exposition and a friend even brought me clothing from the era.”
The play also marks a departure for time and subject matter for Shaffer. Her award-winning plays like Broke, Managing Maxie and Brownie Points are all contemporary looks at modern life and relationships, making The Geller Girls her first “period piece.”
Shaffer is working closely with Alliance director Susan V. Booth on the play, and said she would be making changes right up until opening night. “You don’t know what you have until the actors are on the stage reading it,” she says. “I’ll make changes until they tell me to stop.”
Shaffer’s success as a playwright came a little later than expected. She got her degree in public relations at the University of Georgia, and actually worked in the PR department of the Alliance Theatre at one point. Lauded director/producer Kenny Leon was so impressed by her first play, He Looks Good In A Hat, that he directed it on the Alliance stage. That was nearly 20 years ago, and Shaffer’s career has continued to flower.
“I’m so lucky to be a writer in Atlanta,” Shaffer says. “The arts community is eager to support you, and I’ve had the pleasure to work with Kenny, Lisa Adler at Horizon Theatre and Tom Key at Theatrical Outfit. Everyone is so supportive and wants you to do well. All boats rise.”
While Shaffer is still focused on The Geller Girls, she’s also finished the first draft of a new play set in the world of country music. She’s already made trips to Nashville for research, visiting the Grand Ole’ Opry and seeing Loretta Lynn in concert.
The other excitement is that Shaffer’s husband Bill Nigut, former political reporter for WSB-TV and southern director of the Anti-Defamation League, is returning this month with a new program on GPB called On The Story. Nigut is acting as senior executive producer for the show, which Shaffer describes as “part magazine, part politics and stories you won’t hear anywhere else from around Georgia.”
And what about Shaffer’s daughter’s report on Justin Bieber for her school report? Emma found a journal from a girl who lived 100 years ago in Atlanta and compared it with her own journal from today. Sounds like there might be another writer in the Shaffer-Nigut family.
The Geller Girls runs Jan. 15 through Feb. 9 at The Alliance Theatre. For tickets and information, visit alliancetheatre.org.