Playwright Charlayne Woodard has something in common with her characters. Like Oh Beah, Mercy, Ezra, Alma, and Nate – the five slaves in Flight’s ensemble – Woodard is compelled to t]]> The new year has begun with some new titles on area stages and several more are coming up in the coming weeks.Seeing the musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee recently (a Springfield Thea]]> In a city largely absent of activities and events related to African American culture, Springfield’s black residents have long suffered from the “there’s-nothing-to-do syndrome.&rdqu]]> Don’t let the music fool you. The stage adaptation of Shenandoah is a drama. Set in the Commonwealth of Virginia during the Civil War, the play explores the impact of the war on a family whose p]]> Statistics are often hard to remember. We might forget that 1.1 million Americans are living with HIV/AIDS or that the global total is more than 30 million. We might not know that 25 percent of them d]]> “I would say buying real estate is an emotional decision,” says Scott Richardson. “It’s probably not the wisest move, but sometimes you follow the heart. So we bought a theater]]> For fans of live theater in Springfield, attending The Muni’s new production of Fiddler on the Roof is a bit like seeing the James Bond movie Casino Royale — we’ve heard t]]> What could possibly be more fun than a Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake? How about two ice cream cakes and one wedding ring? Throw in a rich software developer named Alvin Chandler, a veterinarian named ]]> Many of this weekend’s theatrical offerings are focused on the celebration of the official opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. A big downtown block ]]> The show of the summer is Ragtime. The musical opened last Friday at the Springfield Muni Opera and runs through this Sunday, July 3. There is not one weak performance in t]]> Summer theater is upon us and there’s quite an exciting list of possibilities for area theater-goers over the next three months.Theatre in the Park at New Salem outside Petersburg opens its seas]]> Springfield gets its first look next week at Rounding Third, a new comedy by Richard Dresser that played off-Broadway and has been a hit in theaters around the country. Jason]]> On a Wednesday afternoon in early July, five teachers huddle in a cluttered second-floor office in the Hoogland Center for the Arts to plan the third and final session of summer theater camp]]> “My radiation oncologist cruelly resisted my pleas. I begged him to irradiate the unaffected breast so it would be big and perky and glow in the dark like the one they ]]> When Springfield resident Tom Jones reads about or meets a young veteran returning from Iraq or Afghanistan, something deep within him stirs. Jones remembers well the difficulties of adjusting to life]]> “At a certain point I realized I was a clone,” says Gus Gordon of his 22-year tenure as chief meteorologist at WICS-TV Channel 20. His tone is more amused than bemused, and entirely withou]]> “The word of the day is ‘immersion,’” says Legacy Theatre owner Scott Richardson, and truthfully there are few more appropriate terms to describe the Legacy’s production ]]> Ringing in the new year doesn’t need to be an adults-only party. Instead, welcome 2010 with a celebration of family-friendly arts, music and theater at the 23rd annual First Night. This year&rsq]]>