December 2008 Best Bets
Drawn: Crossing the Line
Thought provoking. Fun. Disturbing. This month, the McColl Center for Visual Art features the work of six artists whose themes run the gamut in Drawn: Crossing the Line. Susan D’Amato, Bailey Doogan, Nancy Lawton, Deanna Leamon, Oliver Lewis, and Richard Stenhouse use the supposedly simple technique of drawing to create art with an edge in an exhibition unlike most typically found in Charlotte. Drawing is one of the first things all of us learned in elementary art class, but these artists prove that the method can be as complex as the mind behind it. Through Jan 3, McColl Center for Visual Art
The Velveteen Rabbit
The Charlotte Children’s Theatre brings the stage version of The Velveteen Rabbit to the ImaginOn Theatre. Kids will love the colorful costumes and fairy tale settings, and adults won’t be able to resist the sweet story. Join a boy and his favorite inanimate object as they brave scarlet fever, jealous toys, and the ravages of time to learn that loving someone is the best part of living.
December 12-22, Wachovia Playhouse at ImaginOnCharlotte Comedy Theatre
If Whose Line Is It Anyway? were filmed in the back room of a bar in Charlotte, it probably wouldn’t have been that different from an evening with Charlotte Comedy Theatre. Sure, there’s no Wayne Brady, but there is Keli Semelsberger and her band of hilarious and occasionally shocking improvisational actors. They’ve been doing the funny thing for seven years now in Charlotte, and Keli is a fourteen-year veteran trained by the same coach as Mike Myers and Dan Ackroyd. With a rotating cast and plenty of audience involvement, no night is ever the same.
December 5-30, The Graduate Neil Diamond
After the Davidson Wildcats men’s basketball team made it to the Elite Eight in last year’s NCAA tournament, Neil Diamond, via satellite, performed his biggest hit, “Sweet Caroline,” to hundreds of singing college students. This month he’ll be here in person at the Time Warner Cable Arena to do it again. Although he’s most famous for that ballad, which he originally wrote about Caroline Kennedy, he’s also been a successful songwriter. Both the Monkees and Elvis Presley recorded songs written by the New York City native. Diamond’s most recent album, Home Before Dark, was released last spring and rocketed to the top of the charts.
December 12, Time Warner Cable Arena
