Connecting with the Arts – October 2022

Welcome back to the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County’s monthly blog series, Connecting with the Arts,  where we feature news and updates from the arts community in Anne Arundel County. Tune in the last Friday of each month to connect and learn more about the arts organizations that are making an impact locally.

Here’s a look into this month’s post:

• Annapolis Opera presents A Maryland Premiere: Lost in the Stars and their Golden Gala.
• Annapolis Film Society presents Halloween Shorts.
• HALLOWEEN at the Annapolis Maritime Museum is ALL weekend long.
• Don’t miss Classic Theatre of Maryland’s upcoming productions.
• The AngelWing Project INC. presents….CLAY’S PLACE: Inside My Blue Mind.
• Live Arts Maryland is back with another music filled month!
• Get a head start on your holiday shopping at the First Sunday Arts Festival Holiday Market.
• Take a look at some upcoming events at the Hammond-Harwood House.
• Amoroso Performs at Café Mezzanote.
• Catch up on all the latest happenings at Maryland Hall.
• Check out MFA’s current exhibitions.
• Ballet Theatre of Maryland presents “The Nutcracker” at Maryland Hall once again this December!

You can connect and learn more about these organizations by clicking their logos below. We hope you enjoy!

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A Maryland Premiere: Lost in the Stars

On October 28th and 30th, Annapolis Opera will present the Maryland premiere of Kurt Weill’s dramatic musical, Lost in the Stars!

Based on Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country, the story’s focus begins with two father-son relationships: Stephen and Absalom Kumalo, and James and Arthur Jarvis. Four men from entirely different worlds living in the same country. Rev. Stephen Kumalo goes in search of his son, who he finds in prison after being accused of murdering equal rights activist, Arthur Jarvis, in a burglary gone wrong. James Jarvis, the benefactor of Rev. Kumalo’s church, does not understand his son’s activist movement, but now is faced with the loss of his son. With their worlds colliding, how can these two fathers find a new path in the wake of their grief?

Friday, October 28th at 7:30 PM and Sunday, October 30th at 3 PM at Maryland Hall.

Annapolis Opera Golden Gala

You are invited to Annapolis Opera’s Golden Gala, an unforgettable, one-night-only celebration of five glorious decades of opera in Annapolis, which honors our past and looks forward to the next fifty years!

The evening’s festivities include crafted cocktails and a feast of hors’ d’oeuvres, a special concert performance, and a raffle drawing for a 7-day cruise for two and a diamond tennis bracelet!

Gold VIP Tickets and Gold Patron Tickets are available. Limited Gold VIP Tickets include reserved parking, early entrance, VIP seating, and a gift bag with a signed 50th-anniversary poster!

Join us for this exciting event on December 2nd at Maryland Hall.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit annapolisopera.org or call 410-267-8135.

AFS Presents: Halloween Shorts

A smashing fun event….Don’t miss Derek’s carefully curated short films, thrilling & comedic, this Halloween Eve!

Sunday, October 30, 2022
Maryland Hall in the Bowen Theater
Program at 7:00 PM
Doors will open at 6:30 PM

Purchase your tickets here!

HALLOWEEN at the Annapolis Maritime Museum is ALL weekend long… with a few tricks and treats and maybe, just maybe a few spoooooky #chesapeakebay stories!!

Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 3pm

Come in COSTUME and get free museum admission!

For more information, visit amaritime.org

Twelfth Night (October 7 – 30, 2022):

In our reimagined tribute to the golden age of Hollywood, Twelfth Night features separated twins, mistaken identities and of course, love. We are excited to bring new life to Shakespeare’s classic romantic comedy.

TICKETS: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36626/production/1121254

November Cabaret (Monday, November 14, 2022 at 7:30pm):

Enjoy an evening of live music! These popular costumed and choreographed productions feature our resident singers and special Broadway guest performers, accompanied by the popular Unified Jazz Ensemble. This is perfect for date night or a fun evening out with friends. Our updated Cabaret Venue features cafe tables and a full bar in a relaxed comfortable setting.

TICKETS: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36626/production/1127298

White Christmas (November 25 – December 24, 2022):

Based on the beloved 1954 film, this musical adaptation features the music of Irving Berlin and centers around a successful song-and-dance act and a duo of singing sisters. A perfect start to the holiday season, join us for a heartwarming classic full of love and laughter.

TICKETS: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36626/production/1127268

A Christmas Carol (December 2 – 24, 2022):

Charles Dickens’ story was created to inspire a spirit of charity toward those less fortunate. Our Helen Hayes Awards–recommended original production of this classic holiday story has become an annual holiday tradition, delighting patrons of all ages. Season Subscribers can substitute any Cabaret performance.

TICKETS: https://ci.ovationtix.com/36626/production/1127261

The AngelWing Project INC. Presents….CLAY’S PLACE: Inside My Blue Mind
Written and Directed By: Angela Wilson

Saturday, November 5, 2022, 6 PM
Chesapeake Arts Center – Hammond Lane Theatre
All Ages
Tickets: Starting at $17

The stage play: Clay’s Place: Inside My Blue Mind steps outside of the narrative that some of our most beloved and classic Black plays have made repetitive. Though set in 1956, Tennessee, it’s not another Jim Crow show. It intermingles the richness of the experiences of our past with our continued fight to matter. It’s about family, friends, and enemies. It’s colored and blues. It’s sadness, happiness and the line that fuses them together. It’s hope reimagined, as you learn to play the hand you were dealt, whilst moving through spaces with vices and longing for freedom. It’s trauma and past hurts. It’s the How I Got Over through music and movement. It’s dreams deferred but that won’t ever die. It’s living the blues on a cloud, out loud. It’s Beale and Mississippi, blue minds and lost smiles. It is the timeless and self-evident truths of the Black existence in America.

Purchase your tickets here!

Live Arts Maryland is back with another music filled month! On November 5th at 7:30pm and November 6th at 3:00pm, Cantori will be in The Studio to share their “Sentimental Journey”! Cantori is Live Arts Maryland’s women’s chorus. Next, the Live Arts Jam Band will be back on November 18th for another concert! Come for a night filled with drinks and some of your favorite songs. Tickets for concerts at The Studio are $25 or you can purchase a VIP Table for $120. Don’t forget about our Open Mic Night on the last Tuesday of every month! Even if you don’t want to sing, come hang out and support your friends!

In Mainstage news – our 2022-2023 Season continues with Modern Masterworks featuring Mimi Stillman on November 12th at 8:00pm! Join us for a riveting concert of pieces never before heard in Annapolis! The Annapolis Chamber Orchestra will be joined by flautist Mimi Stillman for a commissioned premiere of Zhou Tian’s Concerto for Flute & Orchestra. This work has been over two years in the making in partnership with orchestras around the United States! The Annapolis Chorale will inspire with works by living composers from around the globe, Ola Gjeilo’s Across the Vast Eternal Sky and Morten Lauridsen’s Lux aeterna. We are thrilled to finally share these modern masterworks!

You can find information on all upcoming concerts and events at liveartsmd.org.

Welcome to our Holiday Market November 6th First Sunday Arts Festival. Get a jump on holiday shopping. This free admission outdoor art market is the best place to shop and support local and regional artists, dine and be entertained with live music.
Located on West Street at the intersection with Calvert Street in both the Annapolis Arts District and the historic district of Annapolis where your adventure awaits you. Local restaurants will be awaiting your arrival offering flavors of Maryland as well as other culinary delights while live music entertains you and gets your toes tapping!

This is the perfect place to purchase fine art and crafts directly from the artisans. It is common to find paintings, photography, wheel-thrown pottery, fused and blown glass, jewelry, woodturning, sculpture, fiber-arts, candles, home decor, and more.

Parking at the Calvert Street Parking Garage (19 St Johns Street) and parking at Whitmore Parking Garage (25 Clay Street).
Friendly leashed pets are welcome.

Live Music:
Stan and Joe’s Lot
11:30-1:30pm DJ Jessie
1:45-2:15pm Johnson’s Mens Chorus
2:30-5pm Color School Band

People’s Park
11:30-5pm Priddy Music Academy

City Gate Park
Noon til 5pm
Alison Thoms

The First Sunday Arts Festival is sponsored by the Inner West Street Association. For more information, click here!

Full Moon Tour
Saturday, October 29th, 6:00-7:00 pm
Tickets: $15

Night was a perilous time in early America as thieves, wayward travelers, and even evil spirits lurked around the corner for our early ancestors. Families engaged in a process of shutting in, barring the front door, and retreating to the inner sanctity of family life. Others chose to frequent taverns and frolic in the night, much to the distress of proper society.

Holiday Greens Sale
November 1 – November 28

Pre – orders are available November 1, 2022 through November 23, 2022. Pickup of completed centerpieces can be done at Hammond-Harwood House December 5 through 7, 2022. Workshops will be available November 28 through December 2 to craft wreaths and centerpieces to benefit the Museum, no experience necessary!

The Making of an Exhibition
November 8th, 3:00 – 4:00 pm, ONLINE
Tickets: Free

In this lecture, participants will get a behind the scenes look at the making of the exhibition Ambition: Charles Willson Peale in Annapolis. Rachel Lovett, former Hammond-Harwood House curator, will discuss the concept for the show, how the pieces were chosen, the loan process, and how the show was installed. Lovett will delve into her research on the Peale family and their contributions to early America. Additionally, the lecture will feature a section on the transformation of a period room into a gallery. The exhibition is now on view at Hammond-Harwood House.

Collectors’ Day – How Appealing: Charles Willson Peale and Collecting
November 12th, 12:30 – 5:00 pm
Tickets: $60 for HHH members, $70 for non-members

Collectors’ Day 2022 features two perspectives on the artist Charles Willson Peale and collecting. Dr. Wendy Bellion will focus on Peale himself as a curator. Art collector Stiles Tuttle Colwill will discuss how he created a collection of works by Peale and his family over the last 30 years. Collectors’ Day complements the exhibition Ambition: Charles Willson Peale in Annapolis. Doors open at 12:30 pm and the first lecture starts at 1:00 pm. Tickets include lectures and reception afterwards, limited space available for this event.

Jane Austen Tour
November 16th, 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Tickets: Free for HHH members, $12 regular admission

Participants will enjoy a 90-minute guided tour of the house that compares the customs and social graces of the Loockerman family, who lived in the Hammond-Harwood House in the early 19th century, with those of characters in Jane Austen novels.

Make it extra special with Tea and a Tour! Hammond- Harwood House is proud to partner with Reynold’s Tavern of Annapolis. Reynold’s Taverns offers an extensive afternoon tea menu – a perfect pairing to enjoy before or after the Jane Austen Tour. Tours and tea are booked separately.

Amoroso Performs at Café Mezzanote
Amoroso is a musical term meaning amorous and the name of an engaging new musical duo featuring guitarist/vocalist Dick Rausch and vocalist Elizabeth Melvin. They will perform at Café Mezzanotte, 760 Ritchie Highway in Severna Park on Sunday, November 20, for two shows at 4:30 pm and 7 pm. Doors open 30 minutes in advance of each show. The concert is part of the monthly Jazz at the Mezz series produced by Jazz Beyond Borders. Café Mezzanotte’s delicious Mediterranean-inspired menu will be available for both shows.

Amoroso’s music ranges from jazz stylings with a Brazilian flavor, to sensuous R&B and laid-back rock grooves. Dick Rausch’s brilliant guitar-playing and unique arrangements underpin Amoroso’s eclectic repertoire of songs. Melvin and Rausch mesh their voices in a soulful blend on fresh versions of tunes by Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Jobim, Branford Marsalis, Neil Young and more. Elizabeth Melvin sings in French, Portuguese and Spanish to add a global magic to Amoroso’s music.

Both Rausch and Melvin are seasoned and admired veterans of the mid-Atlantic music scene. Dick Rausch was musical director and guitarist for renowned rock bands The Color and Second Eagle in the 70’s. Later on, he brought his passion for Brazilian bossa nova and jazz on nylon-string guitar and his warmly enticing vocals to his groups Gentle Birds and Jazacatu. An Annie-Award winning multi-instrumentalist and singer, Elizabeth Melvin has performed with a variety of world music and jazz groups for over 35 years, including Wooden Hands, Mama Jama, Jambulay and the Caribbean Art Jazz Ensemble. She is the founding director of The Freedom Choir, a world music community choir.

Amoroso will be joined at the Café Mezzanotte shows by Brazilian brothers Leonardo and Bruno Lucini on bass and percussion. Having performed in every major concert hall and club in Washington, D.C. they helped create a huge audience for Brazilian music and jazz. Rounding out Amoroso’s sound will be keyboardist Jim Orr who founded The Persuaders in 1988 and has played with The Pan American Rhythm Project, The Samba Bossa Four and Root Boy Slim.

Tickets are $25, available here

Maryland Hall’s Openshaw Balcony Gallery exhibition, curated by Openshaw Artist-in-Residence Jonathan James, features their series, “A Ferengi Funeral,” based on the Star Trek characters of the same name. The work, completed during James’ residency, is a series of figurative paintings made to address the outcome of human trafficking as a natural progression of late capitalism. The exhibition is open through early December.

As part of its 50th Anniversary Season, the Annapolis Opera Company is hosting an exhibit in the Chaney Gallery at Maryland Hall from November 11 through December 23. The exhibit tells the story of the opera company’s first 50 years, from its first performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium in a hotel in 1972 through the current three-opera season of fully staged works on the Maryland Hall stage. A public exhibition tour will be given on November 17 at 5:30 pm.

Maryland Hall Presents Healing Conversations: ‘Unlocking the Transformative Tools of Art Therapy’. Enjoy an enriching conversation, followed by a Q&A on the life-changing work of art therapy on Wednesday, November 16, in our Bowen Theatre at 7 pm. This is the first forum of three Healing Conversations presented by Maryland Hall. We are excited to welcome an expert panel of nationally recognized and local practicing educators, researchers, and clinicians.

Maryland Hall Presents Reggie Rice: Fool of Illusions! Strap yourself in for mind-blowing magic and hilarious comedy illusions as Magician Reggie Rice uses the art of illusion and comedy to teach the true power of the magic of laughter in our everyday lives! Live at Maryland Hall on November 19 at 7 pm!

Strokes of Genius
MFA Circle Gallery
Nov 2 – 26

A painter creates with head, heart, and hand. The sweep and flow of the brush in the hand conveys all that is in the head and heart of the artist and physical power and emotional tenderness are transmitted to paper and canvas. The brushstroke becomes the artist’s voice and communicates with the viewer throughout time. MFA’s twelfth annual all-painting show, Strokes of Genius, will be on display Nov 2 – 26. See the 58 accepted works by 49 artists selected by Juror Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator of the Katzen Arts Center at the American University Museum through Nov 26 at Circle Gallery or online at mdfedart.com/portfolio/266/.

Food for Thought
MFA Curve Gallery
Oct 15 – Nov 30

From farm to table, from fields and gardens, from land and sea – food sustains our bodies as art sustains our souls. For each person, food has a story and a history. Food can help define our community and sometimes our community needs help being fed. We work as a community to help feed our neighbors. A portion of the proceeds from this show go to support the Anne Arundel County Food Bank. This show reflects how food has shaped lives through art. Works selected by Juror Katie Commodore will be on display in MFA’s online gallery, Curve Gallery, from Oct 15 – Nov 30. Visit mdfedart.com/portfolio/267/ to see the work.

Wil Scott at 49 West
MFA at 49 West
Sept 29 – Nov 30

Photographer, Art Historian, and MFA Member Wil Scott will be showing his work at 49 West from Sept 29 – Nov 30. Scott has exhibited in Europe and across the United States. His work is inspired by his frequent travels and our own beautiful Maryland. His show will feature recent photographs from Hawaii, California, and Maine, as well as work depicting Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, and other familiar parts of our region. Join us at 49 West on Oct 2 from 5 – 7 PM for an opening reception. Learn more about Wil Scott and MFA’s other restaurant shows at mdfedart.com/portfolio/restaurants.

Ballet Theatre of Maryland presents “The Nutcracker” at Maryland Hall once again this December! Discover the wonder of this timeless holiday tradition and allow yourself to be magically swept away by the tale of the young heroine Clara and her adventures to rescue her beloved Nutcracker from the Rat Queen’s evil spell. Travel with Clara through the whirling Kingdoms of Snow and Sweets to the place where the possibility of dreams, the magic of Christmas, and the wonder of the child merge to reveal her destiny. Experience the power and beauty anew as the mysterious Drosselmeier transports you and Clara back in time to capture the spirit of the holiday season through the language of dance and theatre.

Performance dates are December 10^th at 7pm, December 11^th at 1pm and 4:30pm, December 17^th at 7pm, December 18^th at 1pm and 4:30pm. Take pictures with your favorite characters and enjoy light refreshments one hour before each Sunday performance at our Sugar Plum Parties. Get your ticket to the party alongside your ticket to the show.

To purchase tickets, visit The Nutcracker 22/23 | BTM (balletmaryland.org)

Photo credit: Joanne Marie Photography