Community Calendar

Dancescapes 2025
Featuring JMU’s Virginia Repertory Dance Company

Dancescapes 2025 will feature choreographic work by guest artists from across the country, including Christian Von Howard (Montclair State University), Madeline Max Roman (Gridlock Dance Company), and JMU Dance Alumna Isabel Robles (Ballet Hispánico). The concert will also feature works by JMU dance faculty members Matt Pardo and Javi Padilla. This exciting evening explores contemporary dance at its finest, performed by members of the Virginia Repertory Dance Company (VRDC). As JMU’s pre-professional dance ensemble, VRDC consists of talented student dancers who are interested in pursuing a career in the professional dance field.

MBU Undergraduate Theatre Fall Mainstage Production

Big Love

Written by Charles Mee and adapted freely by the cast

Based on The Suppliants by Aeschylus

Directed by Molly Seremet

November 6–9, 2025 (Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Fletcher Collins Theatre, Deming Hall

In this raucous play with music, 50 brides flee their 50 grooms on their wedding day. The women seek refuge in a villa on the coast of Italy but all is not well. The 50 grooms catch up with the brides and mayhem ensues. The grooms arrive by helicopter in their flight suits and the women wield words (and circular saw blades!) with equal abandon, and love tangles with belonging, agency, and independence In this world of pop songs, wild dances, and chaotic violence, 49 brides kill 49 grooms … and one marries for love. Join us for this re-making of one of the western world's oldest plays to find out just who finds love in a hopeless place.

FREE ADMISSION!

Cooter's Garage Band performs live every Saturday! 1pm-3pm

Cooter's Place - Luray
4768 US-211, Luray, VA 22835

The winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Original Score, this lush romance unfolds with what The New York Times calls “the most intensely romantic score of any musical since West Side Story.” Mother-daughter duo Margaret and Clara tour Florence in search of the city’s wonders. A fateful moment sparks an intense romance between Clara and a handsome local, Fabrizio. Audiences are swept along a winding road filled with love and longing, where paths twist and diverge to discover new opportunities and a secret kept in the shadows for far too long. Features students from JMU’s School of Theatre and Dance. THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com. Produced by arrangement with Turner Entertainment Co. Owner of the original motion picture “Light In The Piazza.” Based on the Novel by Elizabeth Spencer. Contains adult content, adult language, and sexual content. Recommended for ages 13 and up.

FREE ADMISSION!

Bluegrass Concert live every Sunday 2pm-4pm

MBU Undergraduate Theatre Fall Mainstage Production

Big Love

Written by Charles Mee and adapted freely by the cast

Based on The Suppliants by Aeschylus

Directed by Molly Seremet

November 6–9, 2025 (Thursday–Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.)

Fletcher Collins Theatre, Deming Hall

In this raucous play with music, 50 brides flee their 50 grooms on their wedding day. The women seek refuge in a villa on the coast of Italy but all is not well. The 50 grooms catch up with the brides and mayhem ensues. The grooms arrive by helicopter in their flight suits and the women wield words (and circular saw blades!) with equal abandon, and love tangles with belonging, agency, and independence In this world of pop songs, wild dances, and chaotic violence, 49 brides kill 49 grooms … and one marries for love. Join us for this re-making of one of the western world's oldest plays to find out just who finds love in a hopeless place.

Don’t miss the opening Broman Concert with award-winning pianist Zhu Wang, part of MBU's Signature Events Series.

Considered one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation, Zhu Wang has been praised as “especially impressive” and “a thoughtful, sensitive performer” who “balanced lyrical warmth and crisp clarity” (Tommasini, The New York Times). A First-Prize Winner at the 2020 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he also won the Gold Medal at the 2024 New Orleans International Piano Competition.

The Broman Concert Series is presented by the MBU Music Department. The concert is Monday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Francis Auditorium. Don’t miss this exciting event!

All Broman Concerts and Sunday Recitals are open to the public. We welcome members of the community!

Shenandoah Valley Art Center presents: Compositions that Work with Peg Sheridan. Do you wonder why your paintings don't seem to "pull together" at the end? Would you like to understand how to use compositional tools to make your paintings better? In this hands-on class, you will learn powerful, practical compositional tools that work. Whether you are painting landscapes, figures, still life or abstracts, you will learn how to arrange shapes for better impact and balance. Through guided exercises, you will learn compositions that are proven winners. Peg will provide weekly demonstrations for each of the six weeks of class. She will provide color worksheets, one-on-one help and weekly reviews of student paintings. She has been painting in watercolors for 45 years, and teaching watercolor painting for 35 years, and is known to be the most popular watercolor instructor in the Piedmont/Blue Ridge region. See Peg's work, and more about her classes and materials list at www.pegsheridan.com . (Fee: $250, Tuesdays, September 23, 30, October 7, 14, 21, & 28, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm, at 126 S. Wayne Avenue., Waynesboro, VA 22980, register: www.pegsheridan.com or call SVAC at 540-949-7662)

The Shenandoah Valley Art Center, during the month of October, is exhibiting the artwork of Sculptor, Michael Hough and Painter, Dietrich Maune in the 416 W. Main Street Gallery. Michael Hough is a clay and metal sculptor, curator, Professor of Art at Bridgewater College, and gallery director of the Beverly Perdue Art Gallery. At Bridgewater College he teaches, design, drawing, all levels of ceramics and sculpture, as well as a course called Professional Practices (subtitled “everything I wish I had learned about the business of art while I was in school”). He has been an artist, creating ceramic sculpture, pottery, and steel sculpture, for the past forty years. “My love of all things clay and metal began during my second year as an art student at California State University, Sacramento where I eventually earned a BA and MA in Ceramics”. After five years teaching High School art, Michael returned for his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (1993). Dietrich Maune’s creative work focuses on our relationships with each other and the world as seen through the relationships of animals and their place in our environment. It often looks at how difference can exist together and how the needs of different species and their desire for each other are mutually beneficial and often supportive. His work has been exhibited in numerous solo, group, and juried exhibitions and resides in the corporate collections of the Greenville Museum of Art, NC; DSM Pharmaceuticals, NC; Green Tree Financial, SD; Pouch Cove Foundation, Newfoundland; Rockingham Memorial Hospital, VA and Augusta Medical Center, VA among others; and in many private collections. Maune received his Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts from East Carolina University in Painting and Drawing. The exhibit is open to the public: October 1 - October 25, Tuesday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. at 416 W. Main Street, Waynesboro, VA 22980.

Shenandoah Valley Art Center presents: Acrylic Foundations, Techniques and Textures for all levels with Rainbow Willard. For new or experienced artists, this course offers a hands-on, supportive environment to explore the versatile world of acrylic painting. Students will learn the fundamentals of the medium through weekly exercises and guided explorations, covering color mixing, blending, layering, texture, and a variety of tools and surfaces. Each session builds on the last, leading up to a final expressive piece that allows students to put their new skills to use. Rainbow Willard is a practicing artist and art educator with a BFA in Art Education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has experience teaching all ages and specializes in drawing, painting, mixed media, and printmaking. Rainbow creates a welcoming, encouraging space where students can build confidence, explore new techniques, and make art that feels personal and fun. In lieu of paying the materials fee, students should check the class materials list at www.svacart.com (Fee: $175 and a $20 materials fee due to instructor at beginning of class. register at www.rainbowwillard.com/shop, 6 week course, Wednesdays, September 3, 10, 17, 24, October 1, 8, 10:30 am-12:00 pm., 416 W. Main Street, Waynesboro, VA 22980.)