Catching Up with Katie Fox

By Katie Fox A year and a half ago, after a fifteen-year professional career in the arts, I was given the opportunity to open a new performing arts center for Midlands Technical College – a tremendous opportunity for me, personally, and for our community. Beginning in September, Harbison Theatre will present world premier productions by Columbia-based artists as well as touring productions by internationally-recognized companies. We will host performances... Read More

Aaron Pelzek – Lighting Designer

By Alex Smith One of the least visible, yet most integral positions in the theatre is that of the lighting designer. The theatre is an artistic medium that requires, in its fruition, the ability to both see and hear what is happening on the stage in order to fully comprehend what the playwright has written without looking at the page. Quite simply, without the work of the lighting designer, fully half of the theatrical experience would be missing. Not... Read More

Avery Delores Bateman

By Bonnie Boiter-Jolley From the moment Avery Delores Bateman stepped on stage during a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie, she was hooked. “I had to perform,” she quips.   No stranger to performance, Bateman was often given small roles as a child in church plays authored by her mother, Rosalind Russell. “I was the child who had the epiphany,” she reminisces.  Bateman, New York City bound this summer for the American Musical and Dramatic... Read More

NiA – Columbia’s Nomadic Theatre Troupe

By August Krickel Performance venues and physical space are big issues for theatres in Columbia. “Theatre” usually implies, first, the building itself, whether historic facilities like Town Theatre and USC’s Longstreet Theatre and Drayton Hall, or recent constructions like the current spaces used by Workshop, Trustus, and Chapin Community Theatres. Not so much for The NiA Company, happily independent and “truly nomadic,”... Read More

Cover Story/Jasper Watches Lyon Hill

By August Krickel Visual artist. Graphic illustrator.  Award-winning indie film maker.  Puppeteer.  Children’s entertainer.  Avant-garde event organizer. Suburban husband and dad.  Dark (and vaguely disturbing) visionary.  Lyon Hill wears any number of hats, and is one of a growing number of local artists who are able not only to follow and develop their own creative vision, but to make a living doing so here in the Midlands, and attract... Read More

Jim and Kay Thigpen and the Trustus Legacy

By August Krickel Jim and Kay Thigpen didn’t set out to be Columbia icons, or even pioneers in the local arts community. They just wanted to see and be involved in some good shows It’s hard to imagine the local cultural landscape without their creation, Trustus Theatre, Columbia’s professional theatre company that specializes, and excels, in alternative and non-traditional plays. It’s harder still to accept that Jim and Kay are... Read More

Crafting Broadway Bobby Star

By August Krickel There is a moment on stage at Workshop Theatre, during The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, in which “volunteers” are plucked from the audience. At first they are given simple words to spell, then are quickly dispatched via increasingly difficult words; a judge rings a loud bell to signal their elimination. On opening night, Bobby Craft was chosen. Upon receiving his impossible word, Craft paused, looked around,... Read More