Fall Arts Preview: Not The Usual Suspects

If you live in Atlanta, you likely know the city's art giants -- the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony and the High Museum of Art. This isn't about them. For this edition of our Fall Arts Preview, we decided to focus on the small and mid-sized groups that engage in show -- and maybe a little monkey -- business, and do so with integrity and high standards. We asked a cross-section of arts leaders to tell us what they're looking forward to this fall. For a taste of some of the events, click here to read about the upcoming Out On Film festival, Synchronicity Performance Group and Theatre du Reve.

 If you’ve seen CAROL MITCHELL-LEON onstage, you’re not likely to forget the experience. She cut her teeth at the Academy Theatre and has been seen on almost every Atlanta stage — the Alliance, 7 Stages, PushPush, Actor’s Express and Synchronicity Performance Group. Mitchell-Leon, who politely declines to list her age, came to Atlanta from her hometown of Philadelphia to attend Clark Atlanta University in the 1980s. She’s now chairs the theater department there. Her first professional gig was a summer job with Atlanta Street Theatre, taking plays to camps and youth centers. Favorite roles include Pearl Cleage’s Flyin’ West at the Alliance and matriarch Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie at PushPush Theater (“It was fun and wonderful and hard!”). Look for her next in Steel Magnolias at Georgia Ensemble Theatre (Sept. 7-14) and Miss Witherspoon, a comedy at Marietta’s Theatre in the Square in January.

1. Turned Funny at Theatre in the Square in Marietta. The piece is based on a memoir by longtime Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist and author Celestine Sibley. “When I first got here, I read her column,” says Mitchell-Leon. Broadway and Atlanta actress Linda Stephens, one of Mitchell-Leon’s favorite actors, plays the smart, feisty and savvy journalist. While in college at Clark, Mitchell-Leon saw Stephens do one of Tennessee Williams’ later plays. Later they shared the Alliance stage in a 1990s production of Medea. Through Sept. 24. $18-$33. www.theatreinthesquare.com or (770) 422-8369.

2. Aladdin, part of the Alliance Theatre’s Family Series. “I always like to see Rosemary’s direction,” Mitchell-Leon says of Rosemary Newcott, who directs the musical and is the Alliance’s director of theater for young audiences. The version is based on the Disney movie with Aladdin and Princess Jasmine, newly adapted for ages 6 and up. Oct. 28-29, Nov. 4-5, 11-12. At the Alliance’s mainstage in the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown. www.alliancetheatre.org or (404) 733-5000.

3. Debb Moore’s Midday Renaissance show on WCLK-FM (91.9). “I’m not a huge, huge jazz and blues person, but I really like Debb Moore’s show. When I listen to her, I always learn. I always look forward to something happening with her.” You’ll hear the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan and Nina Simone, as well as more contemporary artists, and chats with frequent guests on Moore’s show. 10 a.m.-noon and 1-2 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday. www.wclk.com.

 BENJAMIN KRAUSE, 32, moved here from Los Angeles about three years ago. He was working for himself, quite successfully, as a dealmaker, putting projects together for the likes of HBO. But he burned out. “The money was great, but 99.9 percent of all projects don’t get made,” he says. So, after visiting his dad here and liking Atlanta’s potential for growth, he made a move. He’s now putting projects together and making deals as owner of the 2-year-old Krause Gallery (www.krausegallery.com) in the Castleberry Hill district Downtown. Its niche: contemporary art at accessible prices. He wants to make art available to those who truly like it, not just those who collect a piece, whether or not they like it, because a “name” artist is involved. Krause, a Pennsylvania native, is looking forward to the Oct. 22 NFL clash at the Georgia Dome between the Atlanta Falcons and the Pittsburgh Steelers and these more artistic endeavors:

1. The Moresight show at the 10 High Club in Virginia-Highland. “One of my artists, Brandon Morrison, is in the band.” On its MySpace profile, Moresight describes itself as “a schizophrenic rock band, an experiment, an evolutionary process 11 years in the making.” Its music: “psychedelic, grime, show tunes.” See Moresight as well as the Selmanaires and Jupiter Watts, on Oct. 20 at 10 High, beneath the Dark Horse Tavern. Cost unavailable. www.moresight.net or www.myspace.com/moresight.

2. David (DP) Peterson show at Krause Gallery. “It’s the first one-man show at my gallery. It will be an incredible show of his new work.” Peterson, 27, is a Michigan native who has exhibited all over the United States. He works in acrylic and resin on wood panel, sometimes monochromatic, sometimes wildly colorful. Nov. 4.

3. Castleberry Hill Loft Tour in the arty southwest Atlanta neighborhood. “I love cool homes and architecture. It’s a blast.” Last year’s tour drew more than 3,000 people to the historic district to see eight lofts and stroll its art galleries, shops and restaurants. Since last fall’s tour, Castleberry Hill has become the eighth landmark district in Atlanta. This year’s tour, the fifth annual, happens Oct. 7-8. $12 advance, $15 day of tour (tickets good for both days). Tickets available at booth across from Centennial Olympic Park Drive and Nelson and Walker streets or www.ticketalternative.com or www.castleberryhill.org/lofttour. 

 SUE SCHROEDER, 49, decided to dance through life when she was 14. It was a way to avoid an all-girls Catholic high school, enter Houston’s new High School for the Performing Arts and build on a desire ignited when she saw a dancer in a solo piece. “I felt [her] soul radiating from her sternum,” says Schroeder. “I was transported. I knew then I wanted to do this myself.” That drive remains alive in her 25th year as founder and artistic director of the modern dance company Several Dancers Core, based here and in Houston, her hometown. She’s hooked on “creating something that didn’t exist before.” Her picks:

1. Corazon Abriendo (Heart Opening) by Several Dancers Core at 7 Stages. The U.S. premiere of a modern dance piece created through a multiyear collaboration with Mexican artists. “Very pertinent to the times and the immigration issues at hand,” Schroeder says. The piece was created with dancers, a video artist, a Mayan weaver, a sculptor and a composer who try to give audiences a glimpse of the vibrant environment and ancient culture of the Mexico state of Chiapas. A three-city whirlwind tour in Mexico happens just prior to the Atlanta performances Nov. 10-12. $15 and $18. www.severaldancerscore.org or 1-800-838-3006.

2. Limon Dance Company at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts. Like Martha Graham, Limon, who died in 1972, is a dance elder, Schroeder says, adding: “Jose Limon is a very important part of contemporary dance, modern dance history.... I think it will be really exciting.” Founded in 1946 by Limon, a Mexican-American dance prodigy, and choreographer Doris Humphrey, the Limon Dance Company is considered one of America’s most accomplished and innovative ensembles. Of the Limon, The Village Voice says: “For drama, virtuosity and grace, there is no finer company.’’ Oct. 12-15. 1700 N. Decatur Road. $5, $15 and $20. www.dance.emory.edu or (404) 727-7266.

3. The Carters on the Record, part of the Conversations at the Carter Center series. “Very important dialogue to be having about the world situation in Korea and Palestine.” Former President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn will talk about Carter Center projects around the world, initiatives in disease eradication, conflict resolution, democracy building, and mental health promotion. Sept. 12. $15. www.cartercenter.org or (404) 420-5100. 

  CINQUE HICKS’ chosen field is visual art, but from there his world is wide open — painting, sculpture, sculptural music, installations, video, happenings. Hicks, an extremely bright 35-year-old, grew up in Los Angeles, graduated from Harvard with a literature degree and moved here in January from Austin, Texas, largely for the possibilities he sees in Atlanta’s arts community. He recently co-curated The Carbonist School: Study Hall at Eyedrum Art & Music Gallery, and has more projects on his palette than one can imagine. Check out his wildly imaginative Web site and blog at www.influxhouse.com, subtitled: “Cinque Hicks’ Space for Ideas.”

1. Tae Earl Jackson and D.E. Johnson at Hammonds House. The Atlanta artists, both women, will create an installation that fills the entire gallery, something you don’t see every day, Hicks says. Jackson was one of five Atlanta artists involved in the Beautiful Things exhibit during the recent National Black Arts Festival. The Atlantans created “environments” in which fine South African crafts were displayed. Johnson was recently represented in Paper Trail at the High for NBAF. At the galleries in southeast Atlanta. Sept. 24-Nov. 12. Donations of $4 requested. www.hammondshouse.org or (404) 752-8730.

2. Brian Parks’ Performances in Near Inaccessible Environs: Public and Private Spaces. Parks and fellow musicians, Hicks says, create minimalist sound sculptures in abandoned warehouses, beneath bridges, on railroad tracks and in apartment complex courtyards. Sometimes he has permission, sometimes he doesn’t. Parks plays a keyboard called a virginal, which sounds like a harpsichord. For details on upcoming performances, e-mail publicandprivate@gmail.com.

3. Two at the Contemporary. Danielle Roney’s Genesis Trial (Sept. 9-16) and Demetrius Oliver, part of the group exhibition Signs of Life (Oct. 12-Dec. 9). Roney, who lives and works in Atlanta, is using sculpture, light and sound in an installation that will encompass much of the gallery space and talk about globalization. She’ll do an artist’s talk at 6 p.m. Sept. 9. Oliver, a Houston artist whom Hicks knows from their work at the Studio Museum of Harlem, is a photographer who uses his body as a sculptural prop in combination with such materials as chocolate icing, coal and bags of garbage. His iconic Cibachrome prints refer to historical events, psychological states and classic American literature. At the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center on Means Street. $5. www.thecontemporary.org or (404) 688-1970.