The Richmond Scene Needs to Be Seen
By Butch Maier
Virginia Repertory Theatre actor McLean Fletcher has worked in the arts around the world but always comes back to Richmond. “I think it’s beautiful,” said Fletcher, who also is a filmmaker and a painter. “The walkability, the drivability, the climate, the tree-lined streets.
“I feel like Richmond is an oasis for me. I have an artistic community that challenges me in a positive way. “It’s big enough to find work but small enough that you can be heard.” No matter your voice.
“It’s diverse and bigger than I think people think—broader,” Virginia Rep artistic director Rick Hammerly said. “There is everything. There is so much music.
A lot of live music, which is amazing. Actual art—painting, photography—it’s everywhere. And I think the theater scene here is really dynamic.
“D.C. has grown into a behemoth, in terms of theater. But here, there are a smaller number, but what I like is the diversity that there is. While we [Virginia Rep] are the largest theater in town, there is another theater that specializes in new plays, there’s another theater which is the gay theater, there is another that does Shakespeare.
“You have all these niches so that if you’re a Richmonder, all of your theater needs are met.”
VIRGINIA REPERTORY THEATRE
Virginia Rep, a regional professional theater headquartered in downtown Richmond, staged Deathtrap in December and January at the Hanover Tavern.
Deathtrap actor Nathan Whitmer and his wife, actor Emelie Faith Thompson, moved to Richmond from Northern Virginia to upsize their home as well as to “hop on the elevator as it’s on its way up” while the Richmond arts scene reaches greater heights.
“We chose this community because we knew that we could come in and keep doing the art we wanted to do and hopefully grow with this community,” Whitmer said. “There’s a bunch of driven artists here—not just in the theater but in the visual arts. We have done a lot of film projects down here over the last eight years, whether it’s commercials or short narratives, so we’ve been down to Richmond a lot, and we’ve really enjoyed getting to know the arts scene down here. We want to help to grow that.”
Upcoming Virginia Rep shows include:
• Primary Trust, March 5-29, at Theatre Gym in the November Theatre complex
• The Cottage, March 27-April 26, at Hanover Tavern
• The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, April 11-May 3, part of the Jessie Bogese Family Series at the November Theatre
Website: va-rep.org
RICHMOND SHAKESPEARE
Fletcher will portray Lady Macbeth in Richmond Shakepeare’s March 27-April 18 run of Macbeth at Dominion Energy Center’s Gottwald Playhouse.
Website: richmondshakespeare.org
THE BYRD THEATRE (photo above)
I had never been to the Byrd.
I have longed to have one of my movies shown in that sensational cinema location, but I have yet to make something grand enough that makes it Byrd-worthy.
In the meantime, a few hundred other audience members and I gathered to see someone else’s Byrd-worthy pic: Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park…a movie I had neglected to see in a theater the first time around.
I know, I know. Why? I was a college graduate when it premiered in 1993. I was “too cool” to go see a dinosaur movie. I admit my mistake. Sure, I had watched it dozens of times in the past three decades, and it was impressive every time I saw it on TV, but at the Byrd in January, it was magnificent.
The creatures were enormous.
The action was incredible. And the laughs! Every joke played. What a wonderful time was had by all. Well, except for those who were eaten.
Website: byrdtheatre.org
VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts bills itself as a world-class art museum with hometown hospitality.
Case in point: The VMFA displayed a collection of more than 50,000 works of art from almost every major world culture, welcomed indie filmmakers for the James River Short Films Showcase, and hosted an elegant private wedding reception—all in one weekend.
The top prizes in the short film competition went to Richmond’s Jeremy Drummond for Monument, the Texas duo Adam Dietrich and Elliott Gilbert for J.J., Richmond’s Nathan Conrad Piskator for Computer Blue, and D.C.’s Justin Lamb for Work From Home.
Websites: vmfa.museum, jamesriverfilm.org
Butch Maier
