Press
Performing Arts Series Brings Unique Events to the Greenville Stage
Added Attraction Garrison Keillor to Close Season
East Carolina University’s S. Rudolph Alexander Performing Arts Series (SRAPAS) presents an exciting schedule filled with electric performances in dance, music and theatre.
The series has provided the region with opportunities to enjoy top-quality entertainment on East Carolina’s campus for over 40 years. The tradition continues this season with a variety of international attractions representing all of the performing art mediums.
Eastern North Carolina firsts—
Series management secured author, actor and orator Garrison Keillor, who will appear as an added attraction on April 28, 2008. Keillor, the host of A Prarie Home Companion, will host “Lake Wobegone Days” in Wright Auditorium. Tickets are exclusively available to series and pick-four subscribers through January.
Keillor received a Grammy Award for his recording of Lake Wobegon Days, two Cable ACE Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award, and was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame at Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications. As an actor, he most recently played himself in the movie adaptation of his show, A Prarie Home Companion, starring Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones. His twelfth book, Pontoon, will be released this fall.
The series presents what it believes to be the region’s first touring Broadway production, RING OF FIRE: The Music of Johnny Cash, on Sunday, January 20. This heartwarming musical debuted on Broadway in the spring of 2006. RING OF FIRE does not chronicle the Man in Black’s life, but instead documents the kind of life exemplified by Johnny Cash’s music. Thirty-eight of Cash’s greatest songs are used to tell a story, including hits such as “I Walk the Line,” “Daddy Sang Bass,” “I’ve Been Everywhere,” “The Man in Black,” and “Ring of Fire.”
Another first for the series is the opportunity to present a slice of Americana: The Monterey Jazz Festival 50th Anniversary Tour will make its way to campus on Wednesday, February 6. The Monterey Jazz Festival began in 1958 and is the longest continuously-running jazz festival on the planet. In celebration of the 50th year, the festival is taking its music to the streets of America for a national tour. The performers that will be featured in the festival’s stop at East Carolina include Terence Blanchard, trumpet; James Moody, saxophone/flute; Benny Green, piano; Derrick Hodge, bass; Kendrick Scott, drums; and guest vocalist Nnenna Freelon.
More highlights—
The season begins with a performance by the Jose Limón Dance Company, America’s oldest contemporary dance troupe. On the program is a reconstruction of Limón’s work The Traitor, and following the performance, the audience is invited to purchase tickets to a private event at which Artistic Director Carla Maxwell and the company will provide insight into the Limón method.
Two of “North America’s finest” classical performers appear on the series. The Empire Brass Quintet, noted for its breadth of repertoire, and the State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Enrique Batiz conducting, will thrill audiences. The orchestra will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 in D Major “Reformation.”
Pianist Olga Kern, who was met with rave reviews after her Greenville debut, returns to the stage in October. Kern was named Gold Medalist at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2001. On the program are works by Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Scarlatti.
Shakespeare plays a significant role on the series this year, as England’s Aquila Theatre Company presents Julius Caesar and the St. Petersburg Ballet Company presents Romeo and Juliet. Aquila Theatre will also perform Joseph Heller’s CATCH-22.
Season tickets are available at $200. Pick-four packages are offered at $118. Individual tickets for series events are $32, and are on sale presently. Discounts are offered for groups, ECU employees, and students. Garrison Keillor tickets are offered as an added attraction to series and pick-four subscribers at $40. Individual tickets for this event will go on sale February 1 at $45. Individual tickets to CATCH-22 are $10 and are currently on sale. Call 1-800-ECU-ARTS, 252-328-4788, or 252-328-4736 voice/TTY for ticket information.
—Laura Huhn, class of 2010
