Music, museum and theater seasons launch
Our wonderful Delaware arts groups and artists have hit the ground running.
It’s a fantasy playground from Sept. 23-25 at the Delaware Art Museum, which is presenting a three-day pop-up exhibition as a prelude to the “IX Arts” symposium on imaginative realism in Reading, Pennsylvania.
DAM’s Friday after-hours outdoor event (Sept. 23 from 6-10 p.m.) will celebrate fantasy and science fiction with live sketching (those wacky Dr. Sketchy models in costume), music, games, more than 12 Rolling Revolution food trucks, cocktails and kids’ activities.
Cosplay is encouraged for guests (no weapons). And if you’re missing your favorite drive-in movie haunt, on Saturday you can take in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at 7 p.m. outside in the museum’s Copeland Sculpture Garden. delart.org
Music ensembles at the ready, No. 1 – First out of the chamber music gate, Melomanie opens Wilmington’s busy season at 2 p.m. Sunday at Wilmington Friends School with an “Up Close and Personal” concert putting the audience onstage with the players. On Sept. 24, the group heads to the intimate Smyrna Opera House for a 7 p.m. concert featuring Icelandic violinist Eva Ingolf in “Raven Thoughts,” written for her by Wilmington composer Mark Hagerty, along with Icelandic songs and Scandinavian baroque works. melamonie.org
Music ensembles at the ready, No. 2 – On Sept. 23 at 8 p.m., the venerable and wonderful Delaware Symphony opens its Classical Concerts (all of them this season at the Grand) with the music of Andre Previn, who will be on hand to receive the A.I. duPont Composer’s Award. The DSO will play Previn’s Double Concerto featuring Jaime Laredo (violin) and Sharon Robinson (cello), the artists for whom it was written, and the concert will conclude with Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 5. Music director David Amado (who just signed with the DSO through 2023) will mount the podium to kick off the year, and as always, at 6:30 he will present his informative and chatty pre-concert talk. delawaresymphony.org
Home sweet home? If you think your household is wild, here are two black comedies that might change – or blow – your mind. At the Delaware Theatre Company, Executive Director Bud Martin helms the world premiere adaptation of Warren Adler’s search-and-destroy comedy “The War of the Roses” running thru Oct. 2. Martin is planning to take the work to New York after its Delaware run. delawaretheatre.org. And there’s more domestic mayhem as Producing Artistic Director Sandy Robbins has opened the University of Delaware REP season with “God of Carnage,” the bitingly funny Tony-winning comedy of manners directed by Kate Buckley that runs in the Roselle Center’s Studio Theatre thru Oct. 9. rep.udel.edu
In a philosophical mood? Catch Delaware Shakespeare Festival’s Artistic Director David Stradley in “How I Came to Love Shakespeare” at the University of Delaware in the Old College Gallery on Sept. 24 at 3 p.m. Part of the UD’s “First Folio” slate of programs, Stradley’s one-man show features Shakespeare monologues and personal anecdotes and some audience involvement, too. udel.edu/museums. Then stay on campus in Newark to take in the UD REP’s production of that granddaddy of all existential plays “Waiting for Godot,” opening at 7:30 p.m. that evening in the Roselle Center’s Thompson Theatre and running thru Oct. 9. rep.udel.edu
Just wanna have fun? Then here are two Wilmington theater offerings for you. Candlelight is presenting its production of that big-haired big-hearted musical “Hairspray “ running thru Oct. 30. candlelighttheatredelaware.com. Or if you prefer classy sleuths and classic murder, then take the afternoon off and slink to the Playhouse at Rodney Square for “Murder on the Nile,” (Agatha Christie’s own adaptation of her famous novel “Death on the Nile”) performed by New York’s renowned Aquila Theatre. It’s at 2 p.m. Oct. 5 for one performance only. duponttheatre.com
Gail Obenreder is an arts professional, writer and producer from Wilmington. Contact her at obenrederg@gmail.com.