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CONCERT MUSIC | Tooting their own horns
New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
Sat. March 10
8 p.m.
$15-$55
Gaillard Auditorium
77 Calhoun St.
554-6060
www.charlestonconcerts.com
George Dubya Bush watched New Orleans Jazz Orchestra frontman Irvin Mayfield toot his horn back in 2006. Now it’s your turn. The cultural ambassador of New Orleans and his black-suited bandmates will be giving the people of Charleston another reason to share kisses over beautiful music on a peninsula that’s sometimes compared to the city that birthed jazz music. All About Jazz magazine has described Mayfield as a “young hip New Orleans trumpeter” with “jazz chops on loan from Louis Armstrong.” So go and listen to this rhythmic mongrel of a genre that mixes culture and soul and instruments in a way that makes wine and romance taste better. SATURDAY
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EVENT | An artful farewell
Michael Tyzack Memorial Service
Sat. March 10
2 p.m.
Free
Recital Hall (Simons Center for the Arts)
54 St. Philip St.
953-8228
College of Charleston professor Michael Tyzack was an artist in life and on paper. He made people laugh, and this renowned champion of hard-edged abstract artwork was an approachable lover of people who encouraged his students to play with shapes, colors, and their imaginations. Tyzack shaped lives for over 30 years at CofC, and the Hasley Institute of Contemporary Art hosts a memorial service and art exhibit to honor Tyzack this Sunday. His longtime bandmates will provide some Dixieland jazz music to celebrate a life well-lived. Don’t send flowers, please. Tyzack’s family would rather people contribute to his legacy by providing a colorful future for others through his Prize Fund, given annually to a graduating CofC Studio Art major who shows promise. To donate money to the Tyzack Prize Fund, send a check to the College of Charleston Foundation, 66 George St., Charleston, SC 29424. SATURDAY
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FILM | Grow an appreciation for gardening
A Man Named Pearl
Mon. March 12
6:30 p.m.
$10, free for Halsey Institute members
Sottile Theatre
44 George St.
953-5680
www.halsey.cofc.edu
An intriguing and inspiring tale of a man who honed his skills as a self-taught topiary artist, A Man Named Pearl, produced and directed by Scott Gallaway, follows the humbling history of South Carolina native Pearl Fryar. In an attempt to win “Yard of the Month” in his hometown of Bishopville, Fryar began working from the ground up by salvaging seeds from a local nursery. Manicuring and sculpting his plants in order to convey a message of peace, love, and goodwill, Fryar’s finished product caught the eyes and admiration of friends and art and botanical enthusiasts alike, eventually finding its way onto the small screen on CBS’ Sunday Morning. Pearl Fryar will be in attendance as the College of Charleston’s Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art partners with the Charleston Horticultural Society to host a showing of A Man Named Pearl at the Sottile Theatre, sharing a true story of “what one person can achieve when he allows himself to share the full expression of humanity.” MONDAY
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THEATRE | Time ain’t nothin’ but a number
Cloud Tectonics
March 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Sun. March 18 at 2 p.m.
$20
PURE Theatre
701 East Bay St.
723-4444
www.puretheatre.org
Craving another love-stops-time love story? Cloud Tectonics is your cookie, and it’s a little nutty. Written by Jose Rivera and directed by May Adrales (fresh out of Yale University, this is her postgraduate professional theater debut), Cloud Tectonics revolves around a hitchhiking 54-year-old woman in Los Angeles who has been pregnant for two years. It’s raining something terrible, and normal guy Anibal de la Luna picks her up and takes her to his home. Luna finds “Celestina del Sol” is a clock-stopping, mystic wanderer with a heart the size of China and he gets carried away in a night that mentally spans two years. Luna is snapped back into “reality” when his brother stops the love affair and his lady-love flees. He finds her 40 years later. Leave your watch at home and head to PURE Theatre to find how this liaison ends. FRIDAY-SATURDAY
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CONCERT MUSIC | Where the songs come sweeping down the peninsula
The Best of Broadway Show Tunes
Sun. March 11
3 p.m.
$15, $10/students or seniors, $1/children under 7
Sottile Theatre
44 George St.
720-8505
www.cmchorus.com
Laura Ball is straight big pimpin’ and spending G-chords. She strikes the ivories for the Charleston Men’s Chorus, and the 70 men she accompanies can’t help but break out in Best of Broadway songs for charity when she’s around. Can you blame them? She’s the white rose in this harmonious fraternity of altos and sopranos, and this Sunday is their spring concert. Guaranteed to make you want to run through an open field with your arms spread wide open heralding something about the hills being alive with music, proceeds from this concert will go toward giving young people with a voice a proper education. Each year, the Charleston Men’s Chorus awards $2,000 scholarships to promising students from College of Charleston, Charleston Southern University, and the Charleston County School of the Arts. SUNDAY
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THEATRE | Bring your own tin can
HOBO the Musical
March 14-17 at 8 p.m.
Fri. March 16 at 12 a.m. (special charity show)
$8, free/students with a CofC ID
Theatre 220, Simons Center for the Arts
54 St. Philip St.
697-3980
www.myspace.com/hobothemusical
In the fictional town of Justice there’s a band of hobos who can’t quite get their act together. Wandering the streets, they are spiteful, despondent, and dependent on alpha-panhandler Nibbles, who can coax extra change from nearly any passerby. When Nibbles is killed in an attempted mass bum-extermination ordered by the evil mayor, pauper Kenneth is forced to lead the hobo pack in a fight for survival. HOBO the Musical is a humorous take on a serious matter, and it’s a local creation that sold out Theatre 99 last year, not to mention Chicago’s up-and-coming Playground Theatre. The musical, which won Best Play in this year’s Best of Charleston readers’ poll, was written by College of Charleston theatre student Henry Riggs, Theatre 99’s John Brennan, and Chris Gingrich, and should move your feet and provide giggles this week during the show’s first Charleston run of 2007. Check out www.myspace.com/hobothemusical for more motivation to do something cultural this week. NEXT WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY
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