This Wednesday, DRAM 3652 “Producing Theatre” put on their semester-long culminating performance of “Where Words Once Were.” Free to all, the play was performed in the Helms Theatre. With audience members seated on three sides of the stage — a configuration known as black box theatre — and a stripped down set, viewers were able to immerse themselves within the dystopian universe.
Thomas Jefferson wanted to bring the stars indoors. Jefferson, in designing the University of Virginia’s iconic Rotunda, planned to paint constellations on the ceiling of the Dome Room. He never completed this part of his vision, but in 2019, three graduate students set up projectors to display the constellations on the Dome Room’s ceiling.
With her newest cookbook, “Chesnok,” in hand, 2014 University of Virginia alumna Polina Chesnakova returned to Charlottesville, the place where her interest in writing about food began to simmer. What started as curiosity about food and identity led her from a pre-med track to a double major in Eastern European studies and religious studies, and eventually to experiment with food writing.
Millions of Spotify subscribers woke up Wednesday morning to a much-anticipated annual tradition: Spotify Wrapped. In 2016, the world’s largest music streaming platform began showing users their most listened-to artists and songs, assigning music fans different listening personalities based on their favorite genres. The compilation of individual user data comes in brightly colored, stylish infographics designed to share on your social media feed. With a name like “Wrapped,” arriving right on time for the holidays, it feels like a thoughtful gift from the streamer delivered directly to your phone.
Since the Violet Crown’s opening in 2015, the theater was shown to have a different mission than the other commercial theaters in Charlottesville. While the Violet Crown’s program included some of the requisite studio blockbusters shown at Alamo Drafthouse and Regal Stonefield, it also screened independent, arthouse and international films — films which are not often screened at larger cinemas.
As the semester draws to a close, the Drama Department prepares to present its annual Fall Dance Concert, running from Nov. 20-22 in the Culbreth Theatre. This semester’s production boasts the largest cast in the past decade, promising an eclectic performance shaped by the innovative artistic aims of each dancer and choreographer.
The doors of downtown’s McGuffey Art Center opened to a sea of color this November, with paper flag garlands strung from the ceiling, painted skeletal masks adorning the walls and marigolds galore decorating surfaces. Walking through the first floor halls, a web of displays interspersed with saved messages of memory from past years transformed the gallery with the festive spirit of the 13-day Día de los Muertos exhibition, carefully crafted in remembrance of loved ones now passed on.
For most University students, the end of the semester looks like a wind-down for Thanksgiving followed by an immediate gear-up for finals, perhaps intermingled with reminiscing on another semester gone by too fast. However, for some, the end of the semester signals something a little different — a cappella concert season.
Chloe Clayborne, Class of 2025 alumna, is an interdisciplinary artist who focuses on the transcendent, using her art to question what a human soul is and how it relates to the world. Her current exhibit “Decadent Dissolution” at New City Arts in the Downtown Mall explores these themes through sculpture, as well as oil and watercolor paintings.
Life as a University student can mean dressing for many occasions, from football tailgates to sorority formals and from thirty degree mornings to sixty degree afternoons. This fall, many students have increasingly found that subscriptions to Nuuly — an online fashion rental company — are a sustainable way to both expand their closets and find fun pieces for special events and everyday wear.
It was early October 2020, amid her first season as a University of Virginia soccer player, when Lia Godfrey received a FaceTime call from her coach. Steve Swanson, though, wasn’t seeking any soccer-related thoughts from his freshman midfielder. No, Eddie Van Halen had just died, and all Swanson wanted was for Godfrey, an accomplished pianist, to play a song by one of his favorite bands.
To movie lovers around the world, David Lynch was an auteur with a singular vision and talent, the man behind films like “Mulholland Drive” and “Eraserhead.” To Kate Deming, he was just “Uncle David.” “For me, it was like, ‘Oh, that’s just Uncle David,’” Deming, a second-year student at the University of Virginia, said. “But I knew he was so special, not only for my dad, but for everyone in the creative industry.”
