Arts briefs

Stage Door Players hires new artistic director ahead of reopening

A scene from Stage Door Player’s musical “Ain’t Misbehavin’” in 2019. (Special/Stage Door Players)

Willie E. Jones III, Stage Door Players’ new artistic director.

BY SAMMIE PURCELL

Following more than a year of shut down, the Dunwoody theater company Stage Door Players has hired a new artistic director to helm its upcoming season.

Willie E. Jones III – an actor, director, playwright, producer and educator from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program – has been brought on as the theater’s artistic director. He will help move the theater in a new direction, according to an announcement. In an interview, Jones said that Stage Door hopes to diversify the types of programming the theater offers. “We’re just looking to move toward a theater – at least on the artistic side – that is inclusive, that is welcoming, that is dynamic, that is challenging, that is entertaining,” he said, adding the theater will use different productions, methodologies and theories “that represent the diaspora of people in this beautiful city of Atlanta.” The theater plans to reopen its indoor mainstage theater in August with the play “Becoming Dr. Ruth,” said Jones. Then in September, the theater will partner with another company to put on a production of August Wilson’s “Fences” and hold William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Brook Run Park’s amphitheater. The mainstage season is set to begin Oct. 1.

The new hire comes following last year’s controversial decision to furlough Stage Door’s longtime artistic director, Robert Egizio.

“People were very unhappy with the way the former artistic director – who was very talented – was shown the door,” said Meredy Shortal, former Stage Door Players board member and wife of former Dunwoody mayor Denis Shortal.

Read the full story online at reporternewspapers.net.

Artist wants to shift perspective on time, environment

Jonathon Keats, renowned conceptual artist, experimental philosopher and writer, is introducing the Atlanta River Time project. (Special/Michael Llewellyn)

Conceptual artist and writer Jonathon Keats is introducing the Atlanta River Time project, a new municipal clock for the metro area based on the flow of the Chattahoochee River, Peachtree Creek and other local waterways.

The project aims to change Atlantans’ perspective on time, the natural environment, and the impact of modern human existence on both.

“We can overcome dehumanization and environmental devastation by calibrating our lives according to personal observations of seasonal changes in our natural surroundings,” Keats said in a press release.

His solution is to redefine time not just in terms of people’s lives but also based on ecology.

Keats delivered the first version of River Time in Anchorage, Alaska in 2020, by creating a digital Alaska River Time clock metered by glacial melt’s impact on regional rivers.

Now, various Atlanta organizations tied to the river and arts are collaborating to bring Keats and his alternative time-reckoning systems to Georgia’s capital city. That includes nonprofit arts group Flux Projects and the South Fork Conservancy, which works to restore the banks of the South Fork of Peachtree Creek, among others.

— CHAD RADFORD

Air Supply to kick off season in Sandy Springs

the first city-run events at the center since the pandemic.

The Performing Arts Center plans 50 scheduled events, with headliners Air Supply, Paul Reiser, En Vogue and Kevin Nealon. Other events include international artists such as The Peking Acrobats, Mystic India: World Tour, and Flamenco Vivo.

The headliners will give the city some bragging rights in the Atlanta region, said Shaun Albrecthson, executive director of Create Sandy Springs, which oversees arts and culture programming.

Ticket prices will range from approximately $7 to $100 depending on the event.

— BOB PEPALIS

City Springs Theatre Company names new leader

Natalie DeLancey takes over as executive director of City Springs Theatre Company after serving as its managing director. (City Springs Theatre Company)

Brandt Blocker has stepped down from his role as executive and artistic director of City Springs Theatre Company four years after he helped launch the company.

Natalie DeLancey, who has been serving as the organization’s managing director, will take over the executive director’s role. Tony award-winner Shuler Hensley will serve as the company’s interim artistic director, the theater company said.

“In four short years, one altered by the pandemic, we have installed ourselves as the premiere home for professional musical theatre in metro Atlanta,” Blocker said. “I have every confidence that City Springs Theatre will continue on as a leading player in the Atlanta arts scene and remain committed to professional, Broadway-quality productions and innovative educational initiatives.”

City Springs Theatre Company was formed in 2017 by Sandy Springs residents Jan Collins, Steven Hauser, and Peggy and Jerry Stapleton.

DeLancey also joined the theater company in 2017. She previously served as director of Arts Education & Community Outreach for ArtsBridge Foundation, an outreach arm of Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.