Have You Heard About the Monthly After Dinner Cabaret?

At the Jasper Project, new art is our M.O. And we applaud the artist who, whatever their discipline, steps out of the long line of folks waiting patiently for their big breaks to take control and make their breaks happen for them with their own vision, fortitude, and faith in themselves and their sisters and brothers in the arts trenches.

This week we’re applauding The Monthly After Dinner Cabaret, a King/Henderson project - that’s Vicky Saye Henderson Van Horne and Clayton King - both prolific performers with a history of making art happen in the SC Midlands and beyond.

The pair offer a great explanation of their history and mission on their website, which we share with you below:

The Story of The Monthly After Dinner Cabaret

The Monthly After Dinner Cabaret offers a chance to enjoy some of the Midlands' most celebrated cabaret and theatre performers once a month in an intimate and lively atmosphere. Sharing an eclectic mix of music and stories, our performers have over 400 years of combined experience delivering lively and entertaining programs.

 We started small in 2023 with a six-month series in a small venue on Two Notch Road. As word got out that this fun event was happening every month, audiences started to grow, and over the course of the next year, we knew we were on to something. 

Our goal was (seemingly) simple. Provide an evening of live music without the need to purchase dinner or drinks. In other words, enjoy a dinner with a friend at your chosen place, and then come join us at the cabaret! Easy, laid back, and fun!

The Monthly After Dinner Cabaret is moving to a new performance space next month. We are excited about performing at Columbia Music Festival Association Artspace in downtown Columbia. Our new venue offers a more comfortable setting with better seating and acoustics, providing an improved experience for all. The intimate atmosphere you've come to enjoy will remain, with the added benefit of enhanced staging. We look forward to welcoming you to our new location for an evening of entraining and quality performances in a fresh environment. If you're not already on our mailing list, please subscribe by using the button below to receive updates as they unfold.

Congratulations to the entire troupe of MAD Cabaret performers, and thanks to Columbia Music Festival Association for providing this company a performance home.

MAD Cabaret’s next event is Tuesday October 8th at 7:30 at CMFA and features Mandy Applegate, Jonathan Monk, w/ Greg Boatright.

Purchase Tickets Here.

Cola Rep Dance Company Performs SAME PALM for Columbia Audiences Before Traveling to NY for International Performance at the DUMBO Dance Festival

If you’re tired of the same old fairytale ballet performances where the spirit of the dancer is subsumed by the restraints of only one person’s imagination, come out to CMFA next Friday and Saturday nights as Columbia Repertory Dance Company presents Same Palm, their first concert of the summer season.

“The title Same Palm comes from our constant investigation of holding pain and joy in the same palm, and how these diverse emotions must coexist for us to get through this life, especially the sometimes-brutal parts,” says Stephanie Wilkins, CRDC co-founder and artistic director.  

Company dancers include Joshua Alexander, Erin Bailey, Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, Shannon Chapman (understudy), Ashlee Daniels, Cecily Davis, Emily Jordan, Carrie Preus, Megan Saylors, Jalen Scriven, Jack Thompson, Olivia Timmerman, and Stephanie Wilkins.

“This show we are also celebrating the launch of the Cola Rep Young Choreographer Initiative with the premier of our apprentice Jalen Scriven’s Changes, adds Bonnie Boiter-Jolley, CRDC co-founder and managing director. “Scriven, an Alumni of Columbia City Jazz Conservatory and a student at University of Southern California, worked with the company to create the piece which he says references ‘holding a mirror to yourself.’ It’s impressive to work with a young artist who possesses the capacity to communicate what he wants clearly but is also so open to collaboration. It’s inspiring and makes me hopeful for the future of dance.” 

In addition to Wilkins’ choreography, the company is excited to welcome works from other major SC choreographers including Erin Bailey Angela Gallo, and Terrance Henderson. “Terrance’s piece is a beautiful blend of ritual and contemporary dance that truly honors both his culture and ancestors,” Wilkins says. “Erin and Ashlee‘s duet is a perfect example of what brings them the most happiness, which is moving in and out of the floor and over and under and on top of each other with lovely contact partnering. Angela’s piece is, as usual, set to a very interesting score and the movement in it embodies her very essence, I see her in all of the dancers and the choreography. Erin’s Kinect is athletic and powerful, but also sinuous … I know the work of these three choreographers and what I love about them is that their pieces are genuine and true to themselves, but they also try to break open their own personal stories and use their creativity to challenge themselves, their dancers, and the viewer.”

Columbia Repertory Dance Company was founded in 2019 by Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Stephanie Wilkins as a professional company that would resolve the age-old Columbia problem of already established dance companies only offering contracts to their dancers for six or fewer months per year. This impacted the dancers, who still had to stay in shape, (professional dancers must take class from 5 – 7 days per week to stay fit), and also had to pay for their living expenses, by offering them paying dance gigs, artistic stimulation, and the opportunity to stay in shape without going broke. It impacted dance audiences by providing new, original, and innovative contemporary ballet performances from their favorite Columbia-based dance artists, with choreography by a large variety of some of Columbia’s top choreographers.

Sadly, in response to the founding of Columbia Repertory Dance Company, which became a non-profit 501c3 in 2022, South Carolina Ballet, which has recently changed its name again from Columbia City Ballet, began illegally forbidding its dancers from participating in any off-season, off-contract performances with other local companies such as Columbia Repertory Dance Company or Ann Brodie’s Carolina Ballet.

But this didn’t hold Columbia Repertory Dance Company back. The Company has grown to include two unique dance concerts per summer, as well as additional local performances such as Live on Lincoln, and traveling to New York to be honored as the only South Carolina dance company featured (2023 and 2024) in the DUMBO Dance Festival.

A dance festival celebrating it’s 23rd year in Brooklyn, NY, DUMBO Dance Festival stands for Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass with the festival’s official description stating, “2024 DDF features 50 contemporary dance troupes combining over 400 artists who will present solo, chamber, and full-scale works. Dancers from across the United States, and internationally from Switzerland, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea will join New York’s active dance community to offer the full range of new directions in dance in the 21st century.” 

The festival takes place over four days in June and highlights dance companies making significant artistic contributions to the dance world. Cola Rep Dance Co is the only company from North or South Carolina invited to perform. 

“We are honored and excited to have the opportunity for the second year in a row to act as ambassadors for South Carolina dance by taking members of our company to perform on stage with the other wonderful groups selected. We see it as an important way of remaining part of the global conversation on the evolution of the art form,” says Boiter-Jolley. 

Same Palm will be performed at 7:30 on Friday and Saturday nights, June 21st and 22nd, at Columbia Music Festival Association at 914 Pulaski Street in Columbia’s historic Congaree Vista. Tickets are $30 in advance and $35 at the door.  

While you’re reserving your seats for Same Palm, mark your calendars for August 17th and 18th when Columbia Rep Dance Company performs their second concert of the summer, How to Fall Down, at the Koger Center for the Arts. How to Fall Down features the work of choreographers Dale Lam, Jennifer Deckert, and Simone Cuttino, as well as in-house choreography by Wilkins. Tickets will be available soon. 

Celebrating the 2023 Play Right Series and Everyone Involved ~ a message from Cindi

Congratulations to the Cast & Crew of the PRS 2023 Winning Play THERAPY by Lonetta Thompson!

Cast & Crew of Lonetta Thompson’s THERAPY

Emily Deck Harrill, Ric Edwards, Marilyn Matheus, Michelle Jacobs, Allison Allgood, Elena Martinez-Vidal and center front Lonetta Thompson

Forgive me if this message still reads a little giddy but we’ve just completed the culmination of the Jasper Project’s 2023 Play Right Series and it just feels so good!

Here’s a little history. I came up with the idea for the Play Right Series in 2017 as a way to promote and support original playwrighting from SC artists while at the same time gently informing members of the community about how much time, energy, talent, and WORK HOURS go into the creation of theatre.

I have this theory that one of the reasons arts (of all disciplines) are not valued as they should be is that, due to our lack of proper arts education and appreciation in schools, among other reasons, the average working South Carolinian doesn’t learn and build their worldview knowing that in addition to art being a talent, it is also work. If the arts are not a part of one’s life, many people think of art as a hobby or something only children engage in until they grow out of it. Think piano and ballet lessons. The average person may not discern the difference in hobbyists, crafters, and artists—all important parts of our culture, but also distinctly different. They may not realize how many of their fellow South Carolinians make their livings as professional artists or in one of the unique and highly skilled jobs that fall under the profession of arts administration.

When we started the Play Right Series in 2017 with our first play, Sharks and Other Lovers written by David Randall Cook and directed by Larry Hembree, I hoped that by inviting Community Producers to become a part of the process they would act as diplomats of local theatre, sharing their experiences and encouraging others to make live theatre part of their entertainment options. The plan was—and still is—that we ask Community Producers to invest $250 each in the production of a brand-new juried play by a SC playwright with their investment going to pay a cast and crew (and playwright) to workshop that play from the first table reading to a ticketed staged reading. (Some, like Bill and Jack, donate even more.) The CPs are invited to meet with the cast and crew over the course of a month or so and take part in the workshopping of the script before serving as our guests of honor at the public staged reading.

In 2022, Chad Henderson directed last year’s winning play, Moon Swallower by Colby Quick to a SRO audience. It was almost a full production of the play.

Last night, under the direction of Elena Martinez-Vidal with stage management by Emily Deck Harrill, this year’s Community Producers and generous sponsors produced the staged reading of Therapy by SC theatre artist Lonetta Thompson. The cast included Marilyn Mattheus, Allison Allgood, Michelle Jacobs, and Ric Edwards. Illustrious SC playwright and Jasper Project board of directors member Jon Tuttle oversaw the entire project for the second year in a row and all I did was bring cookies.

RIC EDWARDS

ALLISON ALLGOOD

MARILYN MATTHEUS

MICHELLE JACOBS

LONETTA THOMPSON (LEFT) AND EMILY DECK HARRILL

Some of last year’s CPs were so pleased with the project in 2022 that they came back this year –thank you to Kirkland and James Smith and to the incredibly supportive Bill Schmidt for this. New CPs and sponsors included Shannon and Steven Huffman, Jack and Dora Ann McKenzie, Betsy Newman, and Amy and Vincent Sheheen, as well as new JP board members Keith Tolen and Libby Campbell. JP board president Wade Sellers and I were CPs again, as well.

This morning, messages streamed in on the group email thread Jon initiated for ease in communication, showering each other, actors, CPs, and playwright alike with congratulations and heartfelt feedback. Keith Tolen says, “I will never watch a performance the same without thinking of the work that makes it seem effortless. Thanks to all because you made it an experience that I will not soon forget.” Kirkland Smith says, “It was a wonderful experience and I very much appreciate your openness, honesty, and talent!”

AUGUST 6, 2023 PANEL TALK-BACK

AUGUST 6, 2023 PANEL TALK-BACK

AUGUST 6, 2023 PANEL TALK-BACK

It is extremely unusual for me to use the term “I” when referencing anything the Jasper Project does. That’s because without an enthusiastically working board of directors who share the same passion that board president Wade Sellers and I have about the importance of service to our fellow artists and arts administrators, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish anything. But this time, I’m so proud of how this little seed of an idea of mine has been implemented and improved upon by the generous and talented individuals who participated in Play Right Series 2023, that I want to claim it! It’s a legacy thing, but also, the Play Right Series is Jasper at its finest. An idea becomes a mission and good people play parts small and large to fulfill that mission, making it a reality.

Congratulations to everyone involved in Play Right Series 2023. In addition to everyone already mentioned, this includes board member Bert Easter, who shared some of his beautiful items from Easter Antiques at the Red Lion for the stage set, and to Ed Madden for helping Bert haul said stuff to and from CMFA; also to Christina Xan, Libby Campbell, and Kristin Cobb for working the event; to Bekah Rice for her graphic arts skills and for laying out the book that many attendees and all CPs and sponsors took home with them; to Bob Jolley at Muddy Ford Press for donating his time and financial resources to this project; and to One Columbia and Columbia Music Festival Association for rehearsal and performance space.

Clearly, we have the village that it takes to birth new art in Columbia, SC.

COLUMBIA REPERTORY DANCE COMPANY PRESENTS “NEXT” FOR THREE EVENINGS AT CMFA ARTSPACE

The Columbia Repertory Dance Company will present a full evening of dance for three nights at the CMFA Artspace, September 9 -11, 2022.

NEXT

centers on the idea of progress, and features a number of pieces that reflect the nature of life and moving forward in today's climate.

The Columbia Repertory Dance Company will perform NEXT on Friday, September 9th, 2022 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, September 10th 2022, at 7:30 PM and Sunday, September 11th, 2022 at 2PM at CMFA Artspace (914 Pulaski St, Columbia, SC 29201). Admission is $30 for this event, and more info and tickets can be found at www.coladance.com or https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5534979

With NEXT, Columbia Repertory Dance Company presents their third annual summer concert and first as a nonprofit organization. Featuring South Carolina choreographers Angela Gallo, Erin Bailey, Dale Lam, Ashlee Taylor and Artistic Director Stephanie Wilkins, the organization will mount an evening of high caliber entertainment that changes common perceptions of dance in Columbia, and follows their mission

statement in helping to both employ SC dance artists and ultimately aid in their retention in the state. The company will showcase a variety of work that represents snapshots of the emotional and physical world and offers something relatable but elevated as the world learns how to exist post-COVID. By collaborating with local artists and organizations and blending the highly physical with the highly emotional, Columbia

Repertory Dance Company aims to create an experience that draws people in and encourages them to make dance a regular part of their arts consumption.

In 2018 co-founders Bonnie Boiter-Jolley and Stephanie Wilkins founded the Columbia Summer Repertory Dance Company with a desire to offer dancers more options in a city focused heavily on ballet. They started with the financial sponsorship of the Jasper Project, a plan focused on summer performances (Columbia’s dance offseason) and a sold out debut performance in 2019 which was followed by a sold out concert in 2021.

The company has extended their season length and become a 501c3 non-profit organization. The group’s popularity among Columbia natives comes from their commitment to exploring refreshing narratives and styles of dance in their work.

The Columbia Repertory Dance Company will perform NEXT on Friday, September 9th, 2022 at 7:30 PM, Saturday, September 10th 2022, at 7:30 PM and Sunday, September 11th, 2022 at 2PM at CMFA Artspace (914 Pulaski St, Columbia, SC 29201). Admission is $30 for this event, and more info and tickets can be found at www.coladance.com or https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/5534979

~ * ~

The Columbia Repertory Dance Company’s mission is to broaden the experience of professional dance artists and patrons in Columbia, SC through multidisciplinary collaborative performances year-round. We aim to retain the talents of South Carolina dance artists and provide a spectrum of professional opportunities while inspiring and developing a broader and deeper understanding of dance in Columbia and surrounding areas.

BUY TICKETS HERE!

Jasper Presents the Staged Reading of the 2022 Play Right Series Winning Play -- Moon Swallower by Colby Quick

MOON SWALLOWER STAGED READING

SUNDAY AUGUST 28TH — 4 PM

at CMFA

TICKETS $10 ADVANCE - $12 AT THE DOOR

The Jasper Project presents the staged reading of a brand-new play, Moon Swallower by novice playwright, Colby Quick.

Quick is the winner of Jasper’s second Play Right Series competition in which he competed with other unpublished playwrights for an opportunity to have his play workshopped and developed by a team of seasoned theatre artists with the end result being a staged reading and the option of further development toward a fully realized stage production.

Moon Swallower will be presented at CMFA on Sunday August 28th at 4 pm with a talk back session and reception following the reading.

Moon Swallower is directed by Chad Henderson with a cast that includes Lonetta Thompson, Stann Gwynn, Becky Hunter, Richard Edwards, and Michael Hazin. Katie Leitner is the stage manager. Veteran playwright Jon Tuttle is the project manager for the 2022 Play Right Series.

The 2022 Jasper Play Right Series is made possible by the contributions of a team of Community Producers, all of whom will have contributed financially to the development of the project and have, reciprocally, been involved in the process from an educational perspective.

They are Bert Easter, Ed Madden, James Smith, Kirkland Smith, Bill Schmidt, Paul Leo, Eric Tucker, Cindi Boiter, Wade Sellers, and Jon Tuttle.

The purpose of the Play Right Series is to empower and enlighten Community Producers by allowing them insider views of the steps and processes of creating theatre art. In exchange for a  minimal financial contribution, Community Producers are invited to attend designated open readings and rehearsals, informal presentations by cast and crew, and opening night performances with producer credits. The result is that Community Producers learn about the extensive process of producing a play and become invested personally in the production and success of the play and its cast and crew, thereby become diplomats of theatre arts.

Community Producers’ names, and that of the Jasper Project, will also be permanently attached to the play and will appear in the published manuscript which will be registered with the Library of Congress and for sale via a number of standard outlets under the auspices of Muddy Ford Press and the imprint of the Jasper Project.

The Jasper Project produced their first Play Right Series in 2017, producing a staged reading of Randall David Cook’s Sharks and Other Lovers under the direction of Larry Hembree. 

About the playwright: Colby Quick is a thirty-one-year-old writer, singer, musician, actor, husband, and father of two. He is the lead singer and guitarist of a Stoner Doom band known as Juggergnome and in the development phase of a rap duo project called Ski & Beige. Colby played Ebenezer Scrooge in Northeastern Technical College’s stage production of A Christmas Carol in 2019 and is currently in his final semester at Francis Marion University as an English Major and Creative Writing Minor. “I have mostly written poems, songs, and short stories, as well as an unpublished novel.: Quick says. “When I was young, I would make stop-motion videos and I wrote scripts for all of them. I think this helped a lot with writing the Moon Swallower.”

About the project manager: Jon Tuttle is Professor of English and Director of University Honors at Francis Marion University, author of THE TRUSTUS COLLECTION (Muddy Ford Press, 2019), which includes six of his plays that premiered at Columbia’s Trustus Theatre, and a recipient of the South Carolina Governor’s Award in the Humanities.

2nd Annual Artists for Africa benefit performance this weekend at Columbia Music Festival Association Artspace

 

This Saturday and Sunday, August 10^th and 11^th, Artists for Africa, a newly formed non-profit organization with goals to provide arts education to impoverished children in Africa, presents the 2^nd annual benefit performance at the CMFA Artspace on Pulaski Street in the Vista.

Artists for Africa Founder, dancer and teacher Cooper Rust, has recently returned from her second stint in Nairobi, Kenya, teaching ballet to young children in the area. In 2012, Rust was able to coordinate an effort that raised nearly seven thousand dollars for the cause in one weekend of performances. Thanks to the work of Artists for Africa, an additional 300 underprivileged children in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya were able to enjoy after school arts classes, giving most of them their first opportunity of this kind.

Rust initially traveled to Kenya in 2012 to work with Anno’s Africa, an organization based out of the United Kingdom promoting education resources in Africa. Artists for Africa joins Anno’s Africa and One Fine Day, based out of Germany, in the global fight for arts exposure and education for these children. A year later, Rust has again just returned home from Kenya and says, “I have all the confidence in the world that Columbia will once again come together to support me and this beautiful cause.”

The concerts include performances by members of the Columbia City Ballet, Columbia Summer Repertory Company, Trustus Theatre’s upcoming production of “Ragtime,” and Milwaukee Ballet among others. Saturday evening’s show includes a silent auction and food and beverages donated by Villa Tronco, Rosso, Gervais and Vine, Tin Roof, Blue Marlin, and Cellar on Greene. Framing of the artwork donated by The Frame Shop, City Art, Haven's, Frames and Things, Framing Plus, House of Frames, Picture Perfect, and Just Susan's Framing.

The events, sponsored by Top Hat Sweepers and the Columbia Music Festival Association, begin at 7pm on the 10^th and 3pm on the 11^th. Tickets for the 10^th are $25 in advance and $30 at the door, and for the 11^th are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.

For more information, please visit www.artistsforafricausa.org or to purchase tickets, call (803) 467-9004.

-- Bonnie Boiter-Jolley

“The Whipping Man” by the Trustus Theatre at CMFA March 12-22 by Giesela Lubecke

 

The Trustus Theatre’s performance of Mario Lopez’s awarding-winning Civil War play opens at the Columbia Music Festival Association 7:30 p.m. March 12.

The Whipping Man continues Trustus Theatre’s Off-Off Lady Street Series, an experiment to bring theatre to nontraditional venues across Columbia. The series began  last August at Tapp’s Art Center with Robbie Robertson’s “The Twitty Triplets.”  For The Whipping Man, Trustus Threatre partnered with the CMFA and the NiA Company, a theatre group committed to bringing artistic programs to minorities, at-risk youths and economically challenged groups.

The Whipping Man is set shortly after the end of the Civil War. Confederate soldier Caleb, played by Bobby Bloom, is a Jewish plantation owner who has returned from the War. When he comes home, he finds that his family is missing, and the only people left are his former slaves John and Simon (played by Mario McClean and Darion McCloud, respectively).

“There’s three characters, and I don’t know, I wouldn’t say there’s a single main character,” said Bloom. “It’s about all three of their relationships with each other.”

Together, Caleb, John and Simon must work through their differences as former master and slaves while they celebrate Passover, a holiday celebrating the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.

“It’s a great story that takes place in such a short period of time,” said McLean. “It’s really heavy material, but it keeps you captivated. I think I was just overwhelmed by the  history of it.”

Bloom, like McLean, was also struck by the historical facts the play bases itself on. “The fact that there were Jewish slave owners in the South I had never really considered, just because Judaism is based around being freed from slavery,” said Bloom.

Both Bloom and McClean expressed their dedication to preparing for their challenging roles. McClean, who has performed in several musicals, admitted he initially felt a bit out of his element getting into the mind of former slave John.

“It was terrifying, but it’s so much more work that I was looking forward to getting into about acting, because in musicals, you’ll have a musical number that carries you through and songs that pretty much tell you how to feel. This being my first non-musical, it was a big challenge.”

Bloom, who was introduced to the script two years ago by cast mate Darion McCloud, said that his biggest challenge was learning how to communicate with an off-screen character.

“There’s a letter in this show, and I’ve actually never had a letter onstage before,” said Bloom. “I’ve had to create an entirely new relationship with someone who is not even there,

and there’s not even a person playing that character. I’ve had to approach a lot of things differently than I usually approach them.”

Performances of “The Whipping Man” will continue for the next week. The show will take a break on the Sabbath, return to the stage March 16, and end its run March 22, three days before Passover. Tickets to “The Whipping Man” are $10 and can be purchased at the CMFA door.

Playing After Dark -- This Friday and Saturday Nights

Neither cartoons, puppets, video games, nor music sound all too foreign.  Unless you’ve been living under a rather sizable rock (or had the misfortune of attending an artistically disinclined South Carolina public school), you’ve undoubtedly encountered each of these creative media before.  But chances are you haven’t encountered them together as a single, collaborative event.

This Friday and Saturday, Pocket Productions affords you the opportunity to do so.  Since 2009, this local arts organization has been expanding the public’s definition of art by exposing Columbia to innovative examples of interdisciplinary artistic cooperation.  Their “Playing After Dark” series, in particular, has introduced audiences to visual, musical, performing, and even culinary arts.

This weekend’s installment of Playing After Dark (titled “1001”) revolves around the unique collaboration between digital and analog art.  It will feature the following performances: Dre and Sammy Lopez of Piensa Art Company will present a combination of digital and analog drawings; Lyon Hill (puppetmaker and puppeteer with the Columbia Marionette Theatre) and Wade Sellers (commercial producer/director and owner of Coal Powered Filmworks) will perform a marionette/cartoon act; Professor Fripples (brilliant young programmer David Hamiter) will show off an audio controlled video game that runs alongside a puppet show; and DJ Deft Key (Entropy Studios’ producer, sound engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and remix artist) and singer/songwriter Bob Benjamin will perform a fusion of digital and acoustic music.

Playing After Dark “1001” begins at 7 pm this Friday and Saturday at CMFA Arts Space (914 Pulaski).  Tickets are available for $10 in advance (online at www.pocketproductions.org), $12 at the door, or $8 with membership.  In addition to the one free drink with admission, fine IPAs, stouts, Merlot, Syraz, and hors d’oeuvre will be available.  The event may also feature a “puppet” boiled peanut stand courtesy of Happiness Bomb (a diverse group of artists, musicians, designers, programmers, and, of course, puppeteers).

For more information about Pocket Productions, check them out on Twitter (twitter.com/PocketProSC) and Facebook (facebook.com/pocketproductions).

-- Austin Blaze - intern, Jasper Magazine