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Pfac offers teen art classes
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.
 

Virginia Stage Company’s Doubt | Print |  E-mail
Written by Jeff Corriveau   
Friday, 28 September 2007
ImageJohn Patrick Shanley’s Doubt has won both the Tony and the Pulitzer Prizes and has managed to set the stage for what may turn into a wonderful hundred years in the theatre.  If the arts are a response to our political and social issues then Shanley has managed to assist in defining a generation and focusing our eyes on many problems of today.  It is truly a fast-paced, passionate drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat... a rare thing in the American theater.

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Doubt is set at a Roman Catholic Church and school in the Bronx in 1964, not that the year matters minus a few references and costumes.  The plot involves a Catholic grammar school and the possible misbehavior of Father Flynn (Joe Hickey), a popular priest in the parish who coaches boy’s basketball and befriends its troubled students.  Despite its ripped-from-the-headlines scenario, the play actually takes place in 1964, right around the time of the Vatican II reforms.

Flynn’s demeanor seems at first perfectly innocent, showing him to be a more contemporary spiritual leader in stark contrast to Jones’ indefatigable school principal, Sister Aloysius (Susan Pellegrino). She, having her doubts about the moral character of the priest, recruits the young, naïve Sister James (Stephanie Cozart) to keep her ear close to the ground. When Sister James comes to her over a strange occurrence involving Father Flynn and a student with alcohol on his breath, the school principal has all the confirmation she needs for her suspicions.

What follows is an explosive cat-and-mouse game between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn.  Although Flynn provides her with more information about the incident, the relentless nun refuses to accept what seems to be a reasonable explanation. At first, it seems she is on a witch-hunt of sorts.  But her continued probing into Flynn’s background provides further details to fuel her beliefs.

This is an incredible cast that Artistic Director Chris Hanna has brought together.

This is an incredible cast that Artistic Director Chris Hanna has brought together. Pellegrino is at the top of her form portraying the unforgiving nun who runs her school like a totalitarian state. Told that the students fear her, she is pleased.  Aloysius shows no pity for the likeable Flynn as she sets out to destroy him for the sin she believes, beyond a shadow of a doubt, he has committed. Susan Pellegrino (Aloysius) is a woman who you can love to hate.  She exudes and embodies the discomfort and fear brought forth by the sisters in a Catholic school (take it from one who attended, catholic school that is) and at the same time traps you in her world of doubt.  You hate her but by the end you feel sympathy and empathy for her.

Image Joe Hickey (Flynn) is amusing, charming and believable, sometimes uncomfortably so, as the concerned priest who may be getting too close to the boys as he avoids confessing yet at the same time never proves his innocence.  Kim Staunton (Mrs. Muller), who plays the mother of the child who is caught drinking and possibly abused, has but one scene however it is probably one of the most memorable in the show.  What do you say and how do you react when a parent says, “So what if my son was touched, he is here so he can get into a good school.”  “He graduates this year why do we need to make this into something it isn’t even if it might be.”  These are paraphrased some but at the same time powerful.  

Doubt is one act running approximately 90 minutes but feels like it is under one hour.  I’m not sure there can be a higher compliment than that.

Doubt runs through Oct. 7, 2007 at Virginia Stage.

 

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