Holiday Night Out 

Holiday Night Out is just around the corner. On Friday from 5 until 8 p.m. in downtown Salisbury, get your picture made with Santa and the Grinch, enjoy the strolling seasonal music by Victorian Voices, hop on the trolley for a free ride, enjoy a leisurely horse and carriage trot through historic downtown for a nominal fee.

See www.downtownsalisburync.com for more details.

 

Scrooge Trolley Tour

Lee Street theatre in collaboration with the Salisbury-Rowan County Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Historic Salisbury Foundation presents this period production with the audience boarding a trolley for an evening’s journey with Scrooge himself as emcee. This special interactive trolley ride recreates scenes of Dickens’ classic 1843 tale “The Christmas Carol.”

Passengers travel back in time to Christmases past with Scrooge on his journey via the trolley to see scenes from this wonderful holiday story acted out at historic sites in Downtown Salisbury. This live-theater presentation will take place weekends through Dec. 20.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for children 6-12 and seniors 65 and older. See www.visitsalisburync.com for the schedule and ticket information.

 

The Edwards Family in concert downtown 

Another family-friendly event happening downtown on Friday is the popular Edwards family in concert. Resurrection Life Church, 216 S. Main St., will host the live concert beginning at 7 p.m. and features Bluegrass, gospel and Christmas songs of the season.

For more information, contact the Rev. Jerry Snipes at 704-433-8776 or visit www.edwardsfamily bluegrass.com

 

Enjoy ‘Christmas at Beechtree Place’

Mocksville — Broadway’s Best presents their final production for 2014, “Christmas At Beechtree Place,” on Friday through Sunday, Dec. 5, 6 and 7.  Friday’s production includes a holiday reception for patrons. Show times are 7:30 p.m. for evenings and 2 p.m. for the matinee.

“Christmas At Beechtree Place” will feature musical favorites ranging from popular to classical and Broadway to religious Christmas favorites for the whole family.

Broadway’s Best performers Kate Sorrels, Thao Nguyen and Zachary Eley-Durbin return after appearing in last summer’s “Showstopper” revue along with pianist and music director Winston Stephens.

Adult tickets are $15; students tickets are $10 at www.broadwaysbest.biz or  336-575-4446.

Broadway’s Best Theatre Company is located at 103 Beechtree Place, near the intersection of I-40 and Farmington Road, Exit #174, in Davie County.

 

Have a laugh at The Grapevine Saturday

Saturday is Comedy Night at the Grapevine, starting at 9 p.m. with James Dugan and company offering stand-up comedy that’s often irreverent, gregarious, and always ready To Make You Laugh (www.tomakeyoulaugh.com). $5 cover. 209 S. Main St., 6704-870-2574, www.cartuccisgrapevine.com

 

Annual gingerbread house workshop 

A sure sign of Christmas approaching — the annual gingerbread house workshop at the Rowan Museum

This event will be held Sunday, Dec. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Messinger Room of the Museum. The cost is  $35 per child (price includes ONE attached adult), and will include decorating a gingerbread house with all kinds of candies and special decorations and icing, photo with Santa, tours of the Museum and refreshments.

For more information and to schedule your arrival time of 1, 2 or 3 p.m., call the Rowan Museum at 704-633-5946 or email  rowanmuseum@fibrant.com

The Museum is located at 202 N. Main St.

 

OCT youth perform ‘On the First Worst Day of Christmas’

Concord — “On the First Worst Day of Christmas” by Faye Couch Reeves, as performed by the Old Courthouse Youth Theatre, has a cast of 38 young performers ranging from ages 8 to 18.

Watch how Amanda MacAfee, the director of her church’s annual Christmas pageant in the small town of Appleville, Wis., decides in order to beat the competition, she will not tell the traditional story of the birth of Jesus, but will present a reenactment of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Can Amanda’s son Adam, with the help of his friends save the traditionally simple and beautiful pageant that they have grown up performing each year?

Join the Old Courthouse Youth Theatre in their adventure to save the annual Christmas Pageant as they bring back the true reason the angels sang that Christmas night so long ago!

Performance dates are Dec. 12, 13, 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 13, 14, 20 and 21 at 2:30 p.m.

For tickets and info, visit  www.ocytnc.org

 

Three local sites accepting donations for NC military families

Operation Toy Soldier is a holiday toy drive program is a nationwide initiative by Veterans Funeral Care to provide toys to the children of deployed and non-deployed soldiers, and also the children of soldiers that have just returned home. Even though Operation Toy Soldier is a nationwide toy drive, all the toys donated stay local.

Local sites accepting donations of unwrapped toys are Powles Funeral Home in Rockwell, Carolina Cremation in Salisbury and The Norvell Theater in Salisbury, between Dec. 1 and 21.

More information at http://operationtoysoldier.com/

 

Lessons and Carols Service at Hood 

Hood Theological Seminary is celebrating the Holy Season of Advent on Friday, Dec. 5 through the observance of the Service of Lessons and Carols.

This moving service originated at King’s College, Cambridge, England in the early part of the twentieth century and is observed widely today. The service is open to the public and will begin at 6 p.m. in The Aymer Center on the campus at 1810 Lutheran Synod Drive.

Dr. Regina Dancy, fiscal officer at Hood Theological Seminary, will deliver the homily at the service.

 

Time Sawyer to play at the Davis

Concord — The locally popular folk rock group Time Sawyer will be in concert on Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Davis Theatre. This Charlotte folk rock band blends elements of grassroots with heart-felt lyrics into a high-energy, captivating show. Show time is 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $15 at  704-920-2753 or www.cabarrusartscouncil.org/davis-theatre/

The Davis Theatre  is located at 65 Union St. S. in downtown Concord in Cabarrus County’s historic courthouse.

 

Mark Catesby’s famed watercolors 

Rowan Public Library is currently hosting an exhibit of reproductions of English naturalist Mark Catesby’s famed watercolors, the earliest drawings of North America’s flora and fauna on record. These will be on exhibit in the gallery at Rowan Public Library Headquarters in Salisbury through Dec. 31. For more information contact Edith M. Clark History Room Librarian Gretchen Witt at 704-216-8232.

 

Bonsai exhibition returns to NCRC

Kannapolis — Steven Zeisel, MD, PhD, director of the UNC Chapel Hill Nutrition Research Institute, hosts the second Bonsai Winter Silhouette Exhibition Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6 and 7. The event is open and free to the public and will be held in the atrium of the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory Building, 150 Research Campus Drive on the NC Research Campus. For more information, visit http://stevenzeisel.wix.com/winterbonsai

 

Catawba dance ensemble event

The Catawba Dance Ensemble presents an evening of dance in the Florence Busby Corriher Theater on Friday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. Attendance is free.

Catawba’s Theatre Arts Department’s dance ensemble meets twice a week for rehearsals and at the end have a showcase to present their work.

This fall, visiting professor of musical theatre Meredith Fox has chosen to focus on poetry by Maya Angelou as a tribute to her life and work. In addition, with the all-female ensemble, a female dance director and the words of a strong female poet, “the concert has evolved into a celebration of female creativity,” according to Fox.

From The Spotlight, by Maggie Saunders, senior www.catawba.edu/theatrearts

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