In honor of Rowan History Month, April 2009, the Rowan Public Library movie series will feature films that have a connection to Rowan. All movies are shown Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. in the Stanback Auditorium at Library Headquarters in Salisbury. Admission is free.
– April 14: “Coffee Therapy.” Filmed in Rowan County, written and directed by Salisbury’s Sam Post. This film is unrated.
– April 21: “College Swing.” George Burns and Gracie Allen lead a cast which also features Salisbury native Skinnay Ennis as the vocalist in one of the best swing bands around.
– April 28: “High Society,” the smash musical comedy remake of “The Philadelphia Story,” stars Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Salisbury native Sydney Blackmer.
For more information, call 704-216-8232.
Drumming workshop
Kalima Tribal presents “Drumming for Belly Dancers: Basic Middle Eastern Rhythms” 7-9 p.m., April 16 at the Looking Glass Artist Collective, 405 N. Lee St.
This workshop will start with basic elements of Middle Eastern drumming. The teacher will be Joe Cathcart, aka Abu Zouz, drummer for Jewels of the Caravan .
Participants are asked to bring a drum or zills. There will be a limited number of drums available to borrow. The fee for the workshop is $10 per person.
For information, contact kalimatribal@carolina.rr.com.
Play with the pros
RALEIGH ó The North Carolina Symphony’s popular outdoor concerts will return to Cary on May 30 with “Play with Pros” at Koka Booth Amphitheater at Regency Park.
Play with the Pros includes two blockbuster worksóTchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto featuring Gentry Lasater, the 2007 Youth Concerto Competition winner, and Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.”
Amateur musicians will sit side-by-side with the orchestra in this delightful annual event. Participants are selected through an application process and are then chosen by lottery.
For more information, visit the Symphony’s website at www.ncsymphony.org/education and click on Community Partnerships. Applications are due by April 20.St. Thomas Players
St. Thomas Players opens its Summer Season with You Never Can Tell, a comedy by George Bernard Shaw.
Directed by Claudia Galup, it will be performed at 7:30 p.m. June 18-20; at 2 p.m. June 21; and at 7:30 p.m. June 24-27.
The second production is “Proof,” by David Auburn. Guest directing this production is Craig Kolkebeck. Kolkebeck has had experience in theatre and film in Los Angeles, Texas and North Carolina as well as internationally. He is currently serving as Adjunct Instructor in the Theatre Department at Catawba College.
Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 6-8; at 2 p.m. Aug. 9; and at 7:30 p.m. August 12-15.
Auditions for both productions will be held at 7:30 p.m. April 27 and 28 at the Center for Faith & the Arts.
Roles are available in “You Never Can Tell” for two women able to play 18 -30, one women 50-60, and two men able to play 18-30, and three men 30-60.
Roles available in “Proof” are two women 20-30s and one male 20s , one male 50s.
For more information call 704 647-0999.
All performances are at the Frances Busby Corriher Center of Catawba College.
PPT set construction
Piedmont Players has rescheduled set construction for the show “Crowns.” New dates are April 18 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. with lunch provided and April 19 from 1-5 p.m.
There will be no set construction this weekend.
All skill levels are welcome. Please enter through the backstage door.
Outdoor drama eventCHAPEL HILL ó Ten of North Carolina’s 14 outdoor dramas will perform scenes from their plays at 7:30 p.m., April 18 in the Ormond Amphitheater in Bath.
The program is presented by the Institute of Outdoor Drama, a public service of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The cosponsor is Walk in the Light Productions, which owns the theater.
The small historic town of Bath is about 125 miles east of Raleigh in Beaufort County on the Pamlico River.
Institute director Rob Fox, said the program, “Stages of History: An Outdoor Drama Tribute to North Carolina,” aims to create awareness of outdoor drama in the state, where the genre was born. “The Lost Colony” in Manteo was the nation’s first historical outdoor drama, starting in 1937.
Admission will be $7 for children 16 and under and $15 for adults.
For tickets and more information, visit www.unc.edu/depts/outdoor. Bluegrass festival J & J Entertainment Productions presents the ninth annual CC Spring Fest 2009 Bluegrass Festival, April 18 at the Cross Country Camp Ground in Denver.
Featured will be Flatout Bluegrass, Grass Strings Pinetuckett, Split Rail, Southern Express, Dry Run Bluegrass, Timber Ridge, Easy Pickin’s, Movin’ On Bluegrass, Southern Junction, and South By South.
Doors open at 9 a.m. The festival will be from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. There will be an open mike from 10-11 a.m. Two bands will be booked for the October 2009 festival based on open mike performance.
Advance tickets are $10. Tickets at the door are $12 for seniors and $ 15 general. Children 12 and under free with parent.
To reserve tickets, call Jerry or Nancy Johnson at 803-328-3224, or 803-322-1589. For reserve tickets/campsite call 800-852-4840. Or reserve by email by contacting jsjohnson_@hotmail.com. Scrabble Scramble
Scrabble Scramble 6 for Literacy will be held April 28 at the Salisbury Holiday Inn. Sponsored by the Rowan County Literacy Council, the event includes team playing with competition for prizes.
The Salisbury Post, Friends of the Library, the South Rowan Y and the Scrabbled Eggs will be defending their previous championship titles. More than 10 tables are expected to compete.
The event is open to the public, and individuals who do not come with a team will be assigned to a table. Each table consists of six to 10 players.
The $25 entry fee per person includes a buffet dinner and three rounds of Scrabble. Reservations deadline is Thursday, April 23.
Raffle tickets at $1 each are also available.
Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m., and Scrabble begins at 6:30 p.m. The event concludes with the awarding of prizes at 8:45 p.m.
Business, community groups, civic clubs, and church groups are encouraged to sponsor a table of their employees or members. All proceeds go toward tutoring Rowan County residents in reading or in learning English as their second language.
For more information, call the Literacy Council at 704-216-8266.
Bar-B-Que judges
The official taste judges have been announced for the Salisbury Bar-B-Que Festival, May 1, part of that weekend’s Salisbury Cultural Arts Festival.
Entrants to the competition can be as creative as they want, and only taste will be judged.
Judges are: John Shelton Reed, UNC-Chapel Hill professor and authority on Southern culture and Dale Volberg Reed, copy editor for UNC Press. Together they have collaborated on four books, including “1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South” and “Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue;”
Edgar and Ruby Hargis of Burlington, certified barbecue judges for the North Carolina Pork Council and award-winning cooks; Lubin Prevatt of Raleigh, certified barbecue judge for Memphis Barbecue Network, the Kansas City Barbecue Society and the North Carolina Pork Council; Mark Glass of Cary, gourmet grilling expert and barbecue enthusiast.
The festival is on Depot Street at Council Street from 11 a.m.-7 p.m., with judging at lunch.
The public will determine the “People’s Choice.” Purchase of a sampler plate entitles you to sample all entries and mark a secret ballot. Winners will be announced at 2 p.m.
Admission is free. Plates may be purchased in advance at www.BBQFest09.EventBrite.com.
There are three categories of participants: independent teams, civic groups and restaurants. They are restricted to Rowan County only.
To enter, contact SCAFestival@hotmail.com.
NC Symphony record
RALEIGH ó The North Carolina Symphony has released its first commercial recording, featuring Branford Marsalis and Yevgeny Sudbin.
Three of the four works (Sunset Strip, Escapades, and Friandises) are world premiere recordings.
John Williams re-crafted Escapades for Marsalis from music written for Steven Speilberg’s film “Catch Me If You Can.”
This is the first of two CDs recorded with Swedish classical music label BIS Records to be released. BIS is currently working with only two American orchestras. (The other U.S. project is with the Minnesota Orchestra.)
The NC Symphony CD was recorded at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh.