Audiences around the world have long been enamored with Garth Fagan’s choreography. While families and theatergoers may be most familiar with his Tony Award-winning work on “The Lion King,” others have been singing Fagan’s praises since long before his Broadway debut. But without the company and overall artistry of Garth Fagan Dance, it’s unlikely his […]
Arts & Entertainment
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Following a two-year artist residency, Baron Vaughn’s newest show premieres at Geva Theatre
Growing up in Las Vegas, Baron Vaughn loved comedy. His mother and grandmother raised him through a tumultuous childhood, and his father was out of the picture. Comedians on TV like Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor became Vaughn’s father figures. He wanted to be like them, so he pursued the first opportunity he found to […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘A Beautiful Noise’ at RBTL
There is a cruel irony in that Neil Diamond, whose songs have made millions of people feel “so good, so good, so good,” felt so bad about himself for much of his life. Diamond has spoken openly about his persistent depression and loneliness, but even his most ardent fans could be forgiven for being surprised […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Muck Duck Studio spreads its wings with a new event space in NOTA
Take a walk with Casey Arthur. Descend the stairs at 100 College Ave. and meet the artist and founder of Muck Duck Studio, who is standing in a feathered hat. Then step into a 7,000 square-foot space where soon, Arthur said, couches will host first dates in which paintbrushes and chamomile tea break the ice. […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘Furlough’s Paradise’ at Geva Theatre
How would it feel to just be? To fully belong to your body, to be free from the way the world sees and punishes you, to return to a childlike innocence before you knew death, to sit on a couch with someone you’ve loved your entire life and — just be? This is the dream […]
Posted inSports
Don Stevens to retire after 40 years as voice of the Amerks
When Don Stevens was hired as the Rochester Americans’ radio broadcaster in the summer of 1986, his wife asked how long they would be there. “Two years, max,” Don said. Stevens had his eyes on a career in the National Hockey League and thought Rochester would be the final minor-league stop on that journey. “The […]
Posted inTheater
REVIEW | ‘Wife to James Whelan’ at MuCCC
It would not be surprising if you haven’t heard of Teresa Deevy, a Deaf Irish playwright whose robust career in the 1930s has given way to obscurity. In 2010, the Mint Theater Company in New York City kicked off an initiative to reintroduce Deevy to the public, but her work is still rarely produced. Through […]
Posted inDance
A sweet sendoff for Thomas Warfield
College can feel like an alternate universe. Surrounded by strangers and pushed out of their comfort zones, students encounter experiences they may have never imagined. In the Performing Arts Department at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Institute for the Deaf, students with varying backgrounds in the arts come together to create and experiment. Professor Thomas […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
RIT unveils new performing arts center
It includes a 747-seat theater with two balconies, an outdoor amphitheater, a large rehearsal hall, costume and scene shops, as well as a box office, an operations office and an area for food service.
Posted inNightlife
Queer nightclub Flora takes root as a gathering place
On a gray afternoon in Rochester, light filters through the tall windows of Flora on Monroe Avenue, catching blue-tinted glass and clay-toned walls. The room feels warm, almost unexpectedly so. In one corner, someone reads quietly with a drink. At the bar, a small group chats with the bartender. Later, the music will get louder […]
Posted inLiterature
A new posthumous collection adds dimensions to poet Lucille Clifton’s profound catalog
Though she died in 2010, Lucille Clifton remains one of the most consequential poets in American literature. It requires only a few lines to understand her power. Clifton, a Buffalo native who spent years in Baltimore, chose clear, distilled language to articulate her meanings. “(T)hey ask me to remember,” she wrote in a 1987 poem, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Using a hot sauce IV and a broken table to process grief
Sports fans often feel like their team’s stakes are life or death. Even the vocabulary of “die-hards” reinforces this, and as any Buffalo Bills fan can affirm, elimination from the playoffs initiates a period of actual grief. It is in this way that sports fandom and personal experiences of loss — through illness and even […]
