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Anime – Cartooning Now! is one of the
new summer courses the Peninsula Fine Art Center’s Studio Art School is offering between July 8 and
August 8 for teens ages 13-17.
Professional artists teach teens to use a variety of mediums and advanced
techniques in pottery and cartooning. Education Manager Julie
Williams is particularly excited to offer Anime – Cartooning Now!, “this
cartooning workshop is being led by Rob Dewing of Smithfield,
VA, a recent graduate of The School of Visual
Arts in New York
with a degree in cartooning.” Dewing has studied under Phil Jimenez,
artist of DC Comic’s Wonder Woman
who also worked on Marvel's The Amazing
Spider-man and under Klaus Janson, most noted for his inking with
Frank Miller for the Daredevil
series and the The Dark Knight Returns
graphic novel.
In pottery and ceramics, Williams says, “we’re offering the
class, Light Up the Night,Beth Turbeville
is teaching advanced techniques on the potter’s wheel in Teen Wheel.” Turbeville is a
professional artist who has been teaching at Pfac for ten years and managing
Pfac’s Ceramics Studio for eight years. where
form really does follow function in the design and creation of table lamps and
nightlights out of clay.
Registration can be completed in person or online www.pfac-va.org.
Each teen course costs $100 for Pfac members and $115 for non-members.
The schedule for these courses is as follows:
- Anime
– Cartooning Now!, July 8, 10, 15 and 17 from 2-4 pm,
teaches the drawing technique, coloring style and story development for
cartooning.
- Light
Up the Night, July 9-12 from 1:30-4:30 pm, uses pottery
techniques to create functional and beautiful lamps and nightlights.
- Teen
Wheel, August 5-8 from 1:30-4:30 pm, involves advanced
techniques on the pottery wheel.
For younger artists, ARTventures Summer Camps offer multiple sessions. These
classes are only a few among many that Pfac’s Studio Art School offers throughout the year. Classes
are offered for artists of all ages and skill levels, ranging from one day to
ten weeks in courses such as painting, drawing, photography, ceramics and art
appreciation.
Pfac is located at 101
Museum Drive, in Mariners’ Museum Park,
Newport News.
For more information, call 757-596-8175 or visit www.pfac-va.org.
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The Little Theater of Norfolk should be pleased with their production of Tim Kelly’s MASH as it does exactly what community theater should do, bring in the community. The play is an excellent choice for a military town, great for a community theater for having a large cast of fun parts, and has name recognition from TV and a film. In addition, this show was one in which lots of former backstage volunteers were able to trod the boards themselves. This production package is sure to bring lots of future volunteers and subscribers to LTN.
Having said all of that, I have to admit the script is absolutely awful. It comes across as a series of short skits with bad punch lines. It also doesn’t help that the pacing of the play is way too slow, lots of potential laughs were lost due to poor set up. Conversely, the dramatic moments were overdone, zapping any emotion from the audience who “gets it already”. While a more energetic pacing would have fixed quite a lot, the problems still lie in a script that has no character development, but sophomoric sketches. The play’s success is also its demise. With the popularity from the movie and TV show, many folks are already coming to the show with preconceived notions. Klinger, a TV character is not in the play, yet many asked where he was. While the marketing idea is sound, I disagree with the use of the TV music as both the preshow montage, and also as curtain call. The song (Suicide is Painless) is too downbeat to end a comedic scene/play and detracts from the work of many first-time performers. In reference to the performers, the scenes are so short, it’s hard to create more than caricatures in many cases, which seems to work for the shtick involved. Still, special Red Bull energy awards go to Rodney Roldan as Ho Jon; Brendan Hoyle as Hawkeye Pierce; Casey Malone as Walt Waldowski; and Leslie North as Houlihan. The set design is a bit cramped, but functional, I just wish doorways had been consistent, as the cast seemed to constantly walk through walls. The challenging lighting of inside and outside of tents was accomplished by Brad Rudacille.