Performance Schedule
Spring 2012
Appalachian Music Concert: Jim Lloyd with Trevor McKenzie
Friday, February 17, 7 p.m.
Adults-$10; Students free
Join us for a FREE Appalachian Instruments Demonstration Workshop from 4 to 5 p.m.
Jim Lloyd’s musical roots run deep, back to four (or more) generations of fiddlers, guitar players, dancers, and singers from the Appalachian mountains of Virginia and West Virginia. His work has been documented by the Smithsonian Institution as representative of Southwest Virginia mountain storytelling and music. Jim’s guitar playing has won prizes at the Galax and Union Grove Fiddler’s conventions for many years, and also excels in clawhammer and two-finger picking styles on the banjo. Jim is the proprietor of Lloyd’s Barber Shop, a Rural Retreat institution, and the shop is often lively with the sounds of folks who drop by to pick up instruments and swap stories.
Joining Jim is Trevor McKenzie, who began learning guitar at the age of nine and later picked up other instruments ranging from banjo and mandolin to the musical saw.In recent years he has become noted for his singing, claiming prizes for folk singing at the Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention and other regional music festivals. McKenzie has acted as chair of the Appalachian Heritage Council, a subsidiary of Appalachian State University’s Popular Programming Society in charge of promoting traditional mountain culture through dances, concerts, and films.
Simple Gifts
Saturday, March 31, 7 p.m.
Adults-$10; Students free
Two women plus 10 instruments equals one good time when Simple Gifts takes the stage. This award-winning band performs on an impressive array of instruments, including two violins, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, recorders, and guitar plus more unusual instruments such as the bowed psaltery, baritone fiddle, banjolin, guitjo, and doumbek. Simple Gifts presents a wide variety of ethnic folk music, including everything from lively Irish jigs and down-home American reels to hard-driving Klezmer freilachs, haunting Gypsy melodies, and exotic Balkan dance tunes. Throughout their performances, they put their own distinctive stamp on traditional tunes, blending styles from diverse cultures with their American roots. The band has performed at the Smithsonian, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and National Governors' Convention, and has opened for Natalie MacMaster, Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon, Robin and Linda Williams, Jay Unger and Molly Mason, among others.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Wednesday – Saturday, April 11-14 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 15 3 p.m.
Adults-$10; Students free
Set in post- World War II New Orleans. A Streetcar Named Desire turns the lens on Blanche DuBois, an aging Southern beauty who moves in with her sister Stella only to be tormented by Stanley, her remorseless brother-in-law. Randy Lilly directs this BRCC student production of Tennessee Williams’ examination of vulnerability and pride.
The Big Bad Musical: A Howling Courtroom Comedy
Saturday, May 19 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 20 3 p.m.
Adults-$10; Students free
Welcome to a courtroom where YOU decide the outcome of the biggest trial ever in the fairy-tale world! The notorious Big Bad Wolf is being slapped with a class-action lawsuit by quirky characters who want to get even: Little Red Riding Hood, her Grandmother, the Three Little Pigs and the Shepherd in charge of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. With Sydney Grimm as the commentator on live Court TV, the two greatest legal minds in the Enchanted Forest — the Evil Stepmother and the Fairy Godmother — clash in a trial that will be remembered forever after. As our wronged fairy tale characters testify, the wolf seems deserving of all that’s coming. Yet, even though the infamous Evil Stepmother resents doing pro-bono work on such an obviously futile defense, Mr. Wolf makes a good case for himself. Was he born a criminal, or made one? Written by Alec Strum, this toe-tapping musical features tunes and lyrics by Bill Francoeur. This BRCC Theatre Workshop for Youth production is directed by Sandi Belcher, and is appropriate for all ages.
