ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 15, 1996 TAG: 9611150022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Out & About
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS
Matthew Saunders requests the pleasure of your company at a wedding next week.
Nope, the Virginia Tech grad student isn't tying the knot, but he is planning to unite two loves of his life - the arts and the Internet.
Saunders, a master of fine arts candidate in the theater arts department, has masterminded a project to link a live audience with an on-line audience at next week's performances by the Konnarock Critters, a local old-time Appalachian band.
The Critters will be pickin' out the mountain music in concerts Tuesday and Wednesday at the Performing Arts Building on campus. Simultaneously, Saunders will broadcast the events worldwide on the Internet. Set your alarm for 8 p.m. EST both days.
Following the performances, members of the band, as well as members of the live audience and the on-line audience, will have the opportunity to interact in a "talk-back" session. People in Blacksburg can chat with people all over the world about the musical heritage of our area.
You can access the performances on the Internet using Mac Video Conference from the IP address 128.173.116.114. The demo version of this software is available from the Macintosh World Wide Web site at http://qtc2.quicktime.apple.com/qtc/qtc.demo.html. The on-line chat session with the band members after the concerts will be held on ATHEMoo at telnet://moo.hawaii.edu:9999.
Of course, if you're still into appreciating music the old-fashioned way, make plans to attend one of the shows at the Performing Arts Building. Admission is free.
Next week's event is the second of three on-line projects cooked up by Saunders. It's a collaboration with the Appalachian Studies Program and School of the Arts at Virginia Tech, Clinch Valley College and the William King Regional Arts Center.
If you'd like more information or want to hear sound clips of the band, check out the "On-Line Front Porch" World Wide Web site at http://dogstar.bevd.blacksburg.va.us/porch/porch.html.
Wait! The choices don't stop there.
You can e-mail Saunders at saundermxc2vt.edu or just pick up the phone and call Tech's School of the Arts, 231-5200.
PREMIERE PERFORMANCE: Virginia Tech's newest musical group, the Early Music Ensemble, will give its first concert Monday at 8 p.m. in Squires Recital Salon. John Howell leads the students in a program of chamber music spanning 300 years.
You'll hear the same sounds that greeted the lords and ladies at the English courts of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. In addition, the ensemble will perform Italian music by Salamone Rossi and Claudio Monteverdi, as well as works by George Philipp Telemann, the leading German composer of the 18th century.
The musicians will play modern and period instruments and will interpret pieces by both Johann Sebastian and Carl Philip Emanuel Bach.
Admission to this premiere performance is free.
nB-FLAT, A, E-FLAT ALTO AND B-FLAT BASS: They're clarinets, of course.
If you like the mellow sounds of clarinets, you'll want to take in the Vivace concert Sunday.
Vivace is a Radford University clarinet quartet featuring Brad Harrington, Sarah Nettelhorst, Monique Balas and Heather Jones. The students - all junior and seniors - have been performing together since January.
Sunday's free concert starts at 3 p.m. in Preston Hall and features seven numbers, ranging from Mendelssohn's "Rondo Capriccioso" to W.C. Handy's "St. Louis Blues."
NEED A LAUGH?: Drama students at Christiansburg High School are putting on a show that's been called "shamelessly entertaining," not to mention "goofy, extravagant and enjoyable."
"Everybody Loves Opal" is the story of Opal Kronkie, a middle-aged kook who lives in a tumbledown mansion at the edge of the city dump. Her junky home becomes a hideout for three con artists who concoct a scheme to do away with her.
Robbin Nuckolls, the new drama director at CHS, leads the cast of six student actors and her own cat, Gillis Glenn, who plays "Mister Tanner."
Samantha Cosgriff, Stephanie Marsico, John deRossett, Nathan Altice, Mike Means and Jeff Schmucker portray the human characters. Senior Angela Mills is the assistant director and senior Josh Rosenfield is the stage manager.
Bo Newcomb and Jeff Berger designed an elaborate set for this production. It even has a ceiling - an unusual attachment in a stage setting. You'll see why it's functional at the show.
The curtain opens for "Everybody Loves Opal" tonight and Saturday at 8 and Sunday afternoon at 3 in Christiansburg High School's auditorium. Admission is $3.
DR. LIVINGSTON, I PRESUME? If you have a sleuth's nose, you can already smell the intrigue at Playmakers' Playhouse in Blacksburg's University Mall.
The Company Players, an acting troupe from Playmakers & Company, is presenting an audience participation murder mystery by local playwright Anna Bond this weekend. Bond's plays are frequently performed in the Roanoke area.
"Diamonds are Coal: The Story of Shade, the Vampire" is the current blood-tingler. It involves two characters who are trying to bring to justice the person responsible for a series of deaths that begin in Springfield, Va., in 1995.
Members of the cast say those attending the play should choose their seats carefully - the person sitting in the next seat may not be what he seems.
The mystery shows tonight and Saturday at 7:30. Tickets are $7 for adults or $5 for students and senior citizens.
Everyone in the audience will have a chance to play Sherlock Holmes. At the end of the evening, correctly fill out the arrest warrant and you'll take home the bounty (a secret prize)!
TALKING HEADS: Phyllis Schlafly and Sarah Weddington will square off on the abortion issue Tuesday in Virginia Tech's Donaldson Brown Auditorium. The debate, sponsored by the Virginia Tech Union's Speakers & Issues Committee, starts at 7:30 p.m.
Schlafly, a national leader of the conservative movement and a lawyer by profession, is the author of the best-selling "A Choice Not An Echo," rated as one of the top 10 conservative books of all time. She's the president of the pro-family organization, Eagle Forum. She's also the leading critic of the feminist movement in the United States.
Weddington is one of the attorneys who argued the winning side of Roe vs. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973. That landmark case had the effect of legalizing abortion.
Weddington served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives and was an assistant to President Carter from 1978 to 1981. She now writes, lectures and practices law in Austin.
Tuesday's exchange will be moderated by Charles Taylor of Tech's political science department. Doors open at 7 p.m. and admission is free. Call 231-7117 for more information.
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