The Arts Center of Kershaw County is proud to present Godspell May 5-7 and 12-14 in Wood Auditorium!

From our friends at the Arts Center of Kershaw County:

The Arts Center of Kershaw County is proud to announce Godspell!

Focusing on the timeless power of hope, Godspell is structured as a series of parables based on the biblical gospel of Matthew. Godspell features an eclectic blend of songs, ranging in style from pop to vaudeville, as the story of Jesus’ life dances across the stage. With music composed by Stephen Schwartz (Wicked) with book by John-Michael Tebelak, Godspell was an immediate blockbuster hit upon its release in the 1970’s.

Godspell began as a project by drama students at Carnegie Mellon University and then moved to the off-off-Broadway theater La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan. The show was rescored for an off-Broadway production, which opened on May 17, 1971, and became a long-running success. Many productions have followed worldwide, including a 2011 Broadway revival.

Now we are proud to bring Godspell to the Arts Center Main Stage!

Dates: May 5-7 and 12-14
Location: Wood Auditorium
Tickets: $25 (Adults) $10 (Under 18)
Showtimes: Fridays and Saturdays doors open at 6:00 for a 7:00 pm show. Sundays doors open at 2:00 pm for a 3:00 pm show.

Purchase Tickets

For more information, please visit our website or call us at 803-425-7676. Thank you for supporting the Arts Center of Kershaw County! We look forward to seeing you soon! 

Summer Reading: Columbia Folks Share What They're Reading This Summer

Joelle Ryan-Cook

Love them or hate them there’s something about South Carolina summers (or wherever you go to escape them) that make you look forward to losing yourself in a fabulous book or two, or four, or five.

For me (Cindi), the world has been a bit too much lately and I’m craving the escape and pretend power that comes with magical realism and fantasy. I want to lose myself in a world that allows me to twitch my nose and make all those NRA lobbyists and the politicians who take their money turn into the cockroaches they really are. So, I’ll be reading the 4th in Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series, published late in 2021, The Book of Magic.

Practical Magic, the first book on which the 1998 movie starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman was based was published in 1995 and was so much better than the film. (So, if you loved the film, you’ll flip over the book!) The other books in the series fully develop the history of the Owens sisters and the magic they possess. This last volume ties all the loose ends together and I can’t wait!

I asked several of my friends to tell me what they were either looking forward to reading this summer or what they would recommend for summer reading. Here are the goodies they shared --

“I’m looking forward to reading The Art of OOO by Chris McDonnell. This is a coffee table sized art book about the creation of the Cartoon Network show Adventure Time. The book is filled with process art and sketches used to invent a visual universe and creative characters from scratch and I’m excited to see how they did it!

That is when Mary the Dog is through with it!”

-       Marius Valdes

“I loved the Netflix series Heartstopper--so sweet!--so I just ordered all four graphic novels. One of my students had recommended it. Maybe I'll get a chance to teach it next spring!”

-       Ed Madden

“I love sharing books I’ve read! My two favorites are below! 

Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney 

Fabulous story told by a woman who walks around NY City on New Year’s Eve and remembers her life through the people she meets - Jazz Age to current times. Fiction but based on actual person.  

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult - love everything by her!

A “present-day” story with a mystery element and an unlikely team of investigators including a discredited psych – this book tells the story of Alice in her childhood and college years and her decision to go to Africa to study elephants. Lots of fabulous info about elephants – Picoult did her research!” 

-       Dolly Patton

“Oooh...I love this... 

“I’m looking forward to reading, actually listening to (truth be told, I prefer audiobooks these days) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. May not be "summer read" material for some, but I just listened to his "The Nickel Boys" and my two teenagers were entranced. Hoping they'll feel the same on summer road trips with this book as well!  

-       Melanie Huggins

“I like crime and heavier stuff. If you haven’t read the Patricia Cornwell Scarpetta novels, start. Postmortem is the first. Dr. Kay Scarpetta is one of my favorite characters and Cornwell’s forensic knowledge keeps you enlightened and turning every page as you learn the gruesome details as well as her well written characters. 

-       Kristin Cobb

“For me, the slower pace of summer is something I look forward to as I like to spend time discovering new recipes and cooking for friends all season. This year I have been thinking about my mother’s Italian family and how much their zest for life is expressed through gatherings around the table with great food and wine. I am going to take a deep dive into that heritage through the classic 1992 cookbook The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food by Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

Reading cookbooks full of stories, history, glossaries, and technique is a summertime joy.” 

-       Joelle Ryan -Cook

“This summer, I’ll be spending a lot of time with Alice Childress’ play Wedding Band, because I’ll be editing it for inclusion in South Carolina Onstage, a 200-year history of Palmetto State drama. That bit of officiousness notwithstanding, it’s a terrific read at a time when marriage rights are still being debated and dinosaurs still stalk the land. It’s set in Charleston and explores the sociopolitical complexities of interracial marriage during a flu epidemic—I mean how topical can you get? It opened at New York’s Public Theatre in 1972 and has remounted around the world many hundreds of times.” 

-       Jon Tuttle 

“I’m looking forward to reading, Hopes and Impediments by Chinua Achebe because he's one of my favorite authors and that's one of the only books in his collection I haven't read yet. 

I have been obsessed by Thomas Freidman's Thank you for Being Late because while it does do a great job of making you rethink being "late", it incredibly breaks down how far behind technology human adaptability is and how critical it is that we update all of our societal systems: education, criminal justice, transportation, social, city development, etc. - to be able to adapt to our new tech-driven world.”  

-       Sherard "Shekeese" Duvall

Nature's Theatre at Saluda Shoals Park

“This project will be a game changer for the entire region, providing moving experiences for audiences, artists and anyone who has ever walked in the woods and heard music from the birds, seen art made unintentionally by tree branches or noticed how the wind makes things dance, how the sheer immensity of quiet sounds like a beautiful soliloquy. That's Nature's Theater.”

~ Larry Hembree, Managing Director, Trustus Theater

Patrons of the arts in Columbia are gaining an innovative new performance venue. Nature’s Theatre is being created as part of a cultural enrichment plan for Saluda Shoals Park in Irmo.  Its design intends to unite performer, viewer and environment within a 400-acre nature preserve.

The state-of-the-art structure is being carefully crafted within the natural landscape, a demure tenant but well-equipped with every amenity of a professional theatre. The three-story facility is to include dressing rooms, a green room, concession area, box office, restrooms, and a treetop event space. The space will accommodate 1,000 people, with 500 dedicated seats and space for 500 on the lawn.

New York City-based Resolution: 4 Architecture‘s environmentally sensitive design was chosen from among 80 entries in an international competition.  It is “very different from anything we have anywhere in our state,” says Saluda Shoals Foundation Director Dolly Patton.

A trip over the ravine-spanning bridge welcomes visitors to the theatre.  They are invited to take a seat before the covered stage.  Nature becomes a unique collaborator in an exchange between art and technology.

Several events have already begun to establish Saluda Shoals Park as a destination for the arts, including Shakespeare in the Park, unearth -- a celebration of naturally inspired art and Holiday Lights on the River.  Patton hopes Nature’s Theatre will become a premier destination for great art and facilitate cultural enrichment for the community. Regional and national talent is welcome.

Saluda Shoals Foundation has raised $600,000 on the way to the first million for the project. It is a $5 million endeavor. Sponsors can assist fundraising efforts by reserving a seat at Nature’s Theatre. Benefits include: name on seat, invitation to the Grand Opening, advance notice of events, invitations to Saluda Shoals Foundation private events, and preferred parking.

More expansions are planned for the park within the next two years, with Saluda Shoals expanding nature trails, building soccer fields and tennis courts, and installing zip-lines.

For more information or to reserve a seat, contact Saluda Shoals Foundation at 803-213-2035 or www.saludashoalsfoundation.org.

  ~ Karla Turner