Maestro. All images courtesy the Virginia Film Festival.
The Holdovers
The Holdovers.
Director Alexander Payne is a devoted cinephile who loves the style of intimate, wryly funny, character-driven films that were plentiful 50 years ago but are now nearly extinct. Payne’s films honor this bygone era of storytelling in welcome ways, including his newest work, The Holdovers. Set in 1970, the reliable Paul Giamatti stars as a miserable New England boarding school teacher who forges unlikely bonds with a student (Dominic Sessa) and the school’s chief cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) while they’re stuck together over Christmas break. Based on extensive positive buzz, The Holdovers looks very promising. (October 28, The Paramount Theater)
Immediate Family
Immediate Family.
Denny Tedesco’s excellent 2008 documentary The Wrecking Crew shone a spotlight on some of the 1960s pop music industry’s greatest unsung session musicians. In Immediate Family, Tedesco continues his coverage of extraordinary studio players into the 1970s singer-songwriter movement. Tedesco’s interviewees include these backing musicians, professionally nicknamed “The Immediate Family,” and many of the musical superstars whose sound they contributed (largely anonymously) to, like Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Carole King, James Taylor, and Linda Ronstadt. (October 27, Violet Crown 3)
Maestro
Director and star Bradley Cooper’s biopic Maestro explores composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein’s (Cooper) complex relationship with his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). Bernstein’s extraordinary career and his romantic life are definitely rich material to work with, and the initial consensus is that Cooper has noticeably matured as a director since his acclaimed A Star is Born. (October 25, The Paramount Theater)
Robot Dreams
Robot Dreams.
Spanish animator Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams, based on Sara Varon’s graphic novel, looks to be the kind of thoughtful, challenging animated feature that rarely gets made or released in America anymore. Sadly, ambitious productions like this usually get ground under by big studios’ animated spectacles. Grab your chance to see this film about a lonely anthropomorphic dog and his robot companion in 1980s New York while you can. (October 28, Violet Crown 1 & 2)
They Shot the Piano Player
They Shot the Piano Player.
Directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal filmed They Shot the Piano Player in stylized “limited” animation built on Trueba’s research into the 1976 disappearance of bossa nova pianist Francisco Tenório, Jr. Jeff Goldblum voices Trueba’s on-screen stand-in, a fictional reporter seeking closure to this gifted musician’s story. Audio from actual interviews with Tenório’s family and peers are interwoven in animated form throughout this visually and musically vibrant film. (October 27, Violet Crown 6 & 7)
Surrounded by members of his council, UVA President Jim Ryan discussed his hopes to strengthen the relationship between the university and the Charlottesville community. Photo by UVA.
Community outreach
The University of Virginia President’s Council on UVA-Community Partnerships met recently to discuss the university’s relationship with the broader Charlottesville community. The council is made up of area leaders from institutions including UVA, the Legal Aid Justice Center, and the Public Housing Association of Residents.
The October 20 event highlighted the college’s ongoing efforts to engage with leaders in Albemarle and Charlottesville on key issues. Notable efforts highlighted at the event included the university’s commitment to paying employees and contractors a living wage, the hiring focused Pipelines and Pathways Program, and anticipated land allocations for affordable housing.
Speaking about the council’s work, President Jim Ryan stressed the importance of the university investing resources, funds, and time into Charlottesville. “People stop talking about potential solutions because they think they’re really expensive,” he said.
Beyond specific action items and goals, panel members emphasized their hope that the council will engage community members. “We are always looking for people to sit on the President’s Council,” said Harold Folley, civil rights and racial justice organizer for the LAJC.
“This is some real stuff, this is happening … it’s actually taking action and doing something,” said Folley. “We’ve been getting stuff done for the last five years. I think the great thing is it’s finally coming together.”
Still in business
Despite concerns sparked by dwindling stock on shelves, Charlottesville staple Reid Super Save Market is not planning on closing, according to owners.
Online, several Charlottesville residents shared their concerns about the grocery store staying open after noticing fewer and fewer products on shelves. “I really like this little locally owned grocery store. It has an affordable diverse range of products,” posted u/throw-away-doh in the r/Charlottesville Reddit community. “I would be sad if this place went away, there aren’t many inexpensive store options close to downtown.”
Located on Preston Avenue, the family-owned and -operated grocery store has been struggling to keep shelves full due to increased costs and diminished profits. For now, the store is focusing on keeping its meat and produce sections full, with hopes to start bringing in more frozen and dairy products in the coming weeks.
“Everyone that we’ve been honest with has been extremely supportive, and that’s what’s keeping us going right now,” Sue Clements, whose family owns the store, told CBS19. “Continue to support us in our current state, and in our future state.”
Reid Market. Photo by Ashley Twiggs.
In brief
Hoos on a roll
In a shocking upset, the University of Virginia football team beat the previously undefeated University of North Carolina Tar Heels 31–27 on October 21. The Cavalier’s victory marks the first time in the program’s history that UVA has beaten a top-10 ranked team on the road—could this mark a turnaround for the Hoos?
Closing time
Market Street Park’s 11pm curfew was reinstated on October 21, after originally being lifted in late September following allegations of police mistreatment of unhoused individuals. The park’s curfew was put back in place following the announcement that People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry would open its overnight shelters early this season. Despite prior announcements of police presence and road closures coinciding with the reinstatement of the curfew, neither were reportedly active at closing. Local advocates for the unhoused held a “Pack the Park” event before the park’s close, which included speeches, a march on the Downtown Mall, and sharing of personal stories.
In review
After months of investigation, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced on October 20 that his office had completed an external review of the November 13, 2022, shooting at the University of Virginia. UVA anticipates releasing the report—which looks at the school’s policies, actions, and threat assessment protocol—to the public in early November. The same day Miyares announced the review’s completion, accused shooter Christopher Jones Jr. appeared in court and waived his right to a speedy trial. Jones’ next court appearance is scheduled for February 5, 2024.
Shot on 16mm film in Charlottesville, Danny Wagner’s For the Taking fuses a homegrown heist plot with a cast of varied acting experience. Image courtesy of VAFF.
Danny Wagner knows he’s a baby in the modern movie biz.
The young filmmaker has worked as a production assistant for major television studios on shows like “Young Sheldon” and as a production coordinator on multiple feature films. But he says he’s still “not there yet” when it comes to making it in Hollywood.
Wagner’s own first feature film, For the Taking, could be the break he’s been looking for. The movie will premiere at the Virginia Film Festival on Sunday.
“The Virginia Film Festival is the first film festival I ever knew, and getting to have our world premiere there is in some ways a climax,” Wagner says. “Its reputation is prestigious, but it also gives movies like ours that are made in the area a chance to shine in a larger venue.”
Wagner, a Charlottesville native and UVA grad, has filmmaking in his blood. Both his parents are documentarians, and he began learning about producing movies when he was “in the single digits.”
The single digits wasn’t so long ago for Wagner—he graduated from UVA in 2018—and his passion for cinema has persisted over the past two decades. He found his voice as an actor in school productions and at Live Arts, and while the university doesn’t have a film department or offer a filmmaking major, Wagner cut his teeth in the media studies department with a film theory concentration and by taking on internships. A work-study he completed with casting and production agency arvold. was particularly enlightening, he says.
“That was an amazing way to understand the film scene not just in Virginia, but along the East Coast and Eastern Seaboard,” Wagner says. “I made a reel of the actors they had in big projects—‘House of Cards,’ ‘Turn,’ and others—and all the talent they had helped cultivate in Virginia really opened my eyes.”
Wagner says For the Taking, a 77-minute heist flick, was a happy accident of the 2020 pandemic. The emerging filmmaker and then-Los Angeles resident was forced back to his hometown of Charlottesville when work dried up. Staying in touch with other industry folks in Virginia, New York, L.A., and beyond, he hatched an idea: Write a script about a guy down on his luck and forced into a caper, cast two unknowns as lead actors, bring in more experienced thespians to guide the newbies, and film the whole thing in rustic 16mm.
The result is an eccentric movie with a raw edge that Wagner believes he was only able to capture using a couple guys new to the silver screen.
“I got really excited about the idea of capturing their little idiosyncratic mistakes to create natural moments,” the filmmaker says. “And I think the natural occurrences make you feel excited for them to succeed. It has been a long, rocky process to get it finished, but it does live by that principle—a spontaneous, authentic, and organic set of characters.”
Wagner also sees For the Taking’s homemade quality as a plus in modern distribution. Could he move the film over to YouTube at some point? Cut the whole thing up and turn it into TikToks? Take it on the road and show it outdoors on projectors? He’s open to anything if it means more people see his movie.
“For the Taking has only taken my money so far, but everyone who has worked on this film has equity in it, and if the film succeeds, we all succeed,” Wagner says. “We all see it as a stepping stone, and I am really happy with what we made. It’s breezy, authentic, and heartfelt. I think there’s an audience for it.”
In front of City Hall and the Free Speech Wall, local author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson spoke to a crowd of roughly 50 people who had gathered by the Banned Bookmobile. Supplied photo.
Local politicians, authors, and readers alike turned out to the Downtown Mall to visit the Banned Bookmobile on October 18.
Across Virginia, the number of book challenges has risen dramatically in recent years, with several school systems pulling content and local governments, including the Warren County Board of Supervisors, restricting library funding over titles.
In Charlottesville, controversy exploded this summer after an unauthorized recording of Johnson Elementary School students reading ABC Pride by Louie Stowell and Elly Barnes was aired on Fox “Primetime” with Jesse Waters. During the Banned Bookmobile’s stop on the Downtown Mall, event organizers and local leaders spoke about how book challenges most frequently target LGBTQ and Black and brown authors and stories.
“I believe that we all deserve a variety of books,” said Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, author of My Monticello, in a speech in front of the Banned Bookmobile. “Books that reflect part of us back to ourselves like a mirror, and books that let us in on the experiences of other people, who may look or live or love differently than we do, like windows.”
“Book bans are being used not like a shield, but like a weapon. Injuring communities, consolidating power in the hands of a few, and taking away the freedom of countless others to choose for themselves and their children what they would like to read,” Johnson said. “Book banning is part of a larger effort to police whose stories get to matter.”
Started by progressive political action group MoveOn, the Banned Bookmobile was created in response to the popularization of book bans by Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. By handing out commonly challenged books and sharing stories of their impact, MoveOn hopes to increase awareness of censorship efforts and access to controversial literature.
“Charlottesville is in a really key location, both for a lot of the local elections and also for the state election,” said Mana Kharrazi, rapid response campaign director at MoveOn. “We’ve had a great experience with the folks here in the community and the leaders and those who are candidates coming out and just all universally being in support of books and the freedom to read and the freedom to learn.”
Despite limited local appetite for bans, upcoming legislative and local elections could determine the viability of future book challenges.
Currently running unopposed for the 54th District House of Delegates seat, Katrina Callsen, who spoke at the Banned Bookmobile event, shared her pride in Charlottesville’s widespread support for protecting access to books and knowledge. Though she did encounter some calls for censorship while serving on the Albemarle County School Board, Callsen says, “I think we have a really great slate of elected leaders and candidates that have made it so that [book bans are] not really a big issue in our community.”
Other local candidates shared their concerns about censorship. “I think banning books denies kids part of our human experience,” says Allison Spillman, candidate for the Albemarle County School Board at-large seat. “I think that it’s the mission of our public schools to teach all kids from all backgrounds, all ethnicities, all identities, and they need to see themselves in the materials that they’re reading.”
Spillman’s opponent Meg Bryce emphasized her own opposition to book banning in a message to C-VILLE. “We shouldn’t shield students from ‘thorny subjects,’” she wrote. “They should read about a time when racism was tolerated, precisely so that they may recognize the evil and how many people were complicit in it. There may be reasons that a parent has a concern over a particular book for their child, in which case they may contact the school to request an alternative. Current ACPS policy allows for this, and I am comfortable with the existing policy.”
In the 55th District House of Delegates race, candidates Amy Laufer and Steve Harvey hold distinct views on book banning.
“We know that this extreme agenda is trying to erase history and give us a narrow view of life,” says Laufer, who attended the October 18 event. “As everyone keeps saying, ‘Let stories be told and heard.’ And this is the only way to build community, hearing other people’s perspectives.”
Though opposed to book banning, Harvey does support “the curation of books for elementary schools.”
“I believe there should be transparent and judicious processes for determining which books are appropriate for the various age groups,” he wrote in a statement to C-VILLE. “Parents, teachers, librarians, and the School Board should be involved in the curation process.”
Beyond offering an opportunity for candidates to share their platforms and concerns about censorship, the Banned Bookmobile’s visit gave young readers an opportunity to pick up some new materials.
“I just really wanted to come, too,” says Lennox, a local elementary schooler who attended the event with her mom and younger brother. “I just really love reading books.”
Superintendent Matthew Haas has been with ACPS since 2004, when he started as the principal of Albemarle High School. Supplied photo.
In a surprise move, the Albemarle County School Board voted unanimously to extend Superintendent Matthew Haas’ contract on October 12 despite a petition calling for the administrator’s removal. Neither the discussion of the administrator’s contract or the vote were listed on the meeting’s agenda.
At the sparsely attended meeting, some school board members expressed their support for Haas and directly acknowledged the petition. “The reasons cited in that petition are either erroneous in attributing [decisions] to Matt, or show a misunderstanding of the issues,” said Kate Acuff, vice-chair and Jack Jouett magisterial district representative. Specifically, Acuff addressed the petition’s criticism of Haas’ role in the school renaming process, which was prompted and approved by the school board.
Other members of the board echoed these sentiments, arguing that Haas brings stability to the district and cannot be solely blamed for issues noted in the petition.
“I know that this school district needs the stability that Dr. Haas brings for the next number of years to continue to move us forward,” said Rebecca Berlin, White Hall magisterial district appointee. “I’ve spoken to a number of constituents, a large number of teachers, a large number of parents in the last year, and everyone feels like we have the momentum moving forward.”
The “Hire a New ACPS Superintendent” petition was started on August 20 by ACPS parent Paul McArtor, and quickly garnered signatures from other community members concerned about Haas’ performance as superintendent. Signees took issue with Haas’ handling of transportation, the school renaming process, the achievement gap, and communication. Also mentioned was Haas’ “failure to understand and consider ramifications” during the bus driver shortage, when the district informed parents and guardians of bus seat limitations mere weeks before the start of the school year.
“Dr. Haas has lost the confidence and trust of the public, including parents, teachers, bus drivers, staff, administrators, and students,” reads the petition, which gained 1,644 supporters before being closed.
While the petition cites many points of contention, no potential solutions or alternate courses of action were given besides replacing Haas.
Haas addressed the school board following the vote to extend his contract, saying, “My job is a humbling job, I am not perfect, and that is why I make it a point to learn something new everyday. Many days I don’t have a choice. It’s also why I am so focused on ensuring that our leaders and staff have the resources and support they need to fulfill that mission.”
For McArtor and other detractors of Haas, the sudden vote came as a surprise and a disappointment. “I think it was a slap in the face for parents and teachers,” he says. “Not only did they do this with no public input, when ACPS loves to send out surveys for everything, but there’s never been a survey of, ‘Hey, do you support the continuation of the superintendent? Or do you think he’s doing a good job?’”
At press time, ACPS had not responded to a request for comment on the exclusion of the contract vote from the school board meeting agenda.
While McArtor is upset with the board’s decision to keep Haas on as superintendent, he is committed to improving ACPS through oversight. “There’s not a wish or a desire for him to continue failing at his position, because … if he’s succeeding, the school system is succeeding and my kids are succeeding,” he says. “But … the shortfalls have been noticed. And he’s definitely under much more of a watchful eye than he was before.”
Ricardo Preve reflects on his arrival in Charlottesville in Sometime, Somewhere, which will have its world premiere at the Virginia Film Festival. Image courtesy of VAFF.
Things have changed a lot since Ricardo Preve arrived at the bus station in Charlottesville in 1977 without money or a passport. There weren’t many Latinos in town then, and he found the locals welcoming, if ignorant about Latin America.
“It was so easy to become a citizen in the ’80s,” recalls Preve. When he became eligible for American citizenship, his boss called his congressman, who called a federal judge, and Preve was sworn in the next day. “I think the whole process took 48 hours from beginning to end.”
Now, he says, there’s no path to citizenship, and the current waiting time for a Mexican is 22 years.
“I feel the attitude toward foreigners has changed,” says Preve, who was born in Argentina. He cites September 11, 2001, January 6, 2021, and August 12, 2017, as “moments that exacerbated and brought out things that may have been here, but were hidden.”
His latest film, Sometime, Somewhere, is “a reflection on my past after being in this town for 45 years,” he says. He uses Charlottesville to tell the story, not only of contemporary migrants, but of this country’s history of immigration.
Preve had an advantage many immigrants don’t have. His aunt, Countess Judith Gyurky, also an immigrant who fled Hungary during World War II, established a horse farm in Batesville. “They received me with open arms,” he recalls.
In Preve’s film, the forced migration of African Americans is remembered by Jamaican-born Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, at the University of Virginia’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.
The Irish also play a part in the local immigration story. Fleeing the potato famine, they built the Blue Ridge Tunnel in the 1850s. And on Heather Heyer Way, Preve films where white supremacy took off its mask.
Preve links The Grapes of Wrath’s Joads, who were escaping the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma, to the immigrant experience. “Substitute Garcia or Gonzales for Joad, and it’s the same story,” he says. “This is a repeating story in American history. People are exploited and they’re considered less than human.”
Preve didn’t ask about the immigration status of the people he interviews in the film, some of whom he found through Sin Barreras—Without Barriers—an organization that supports the Hispanic community.
“At first, people were worried I was undercover ICE,” he says. Then they heard his Argentinian-accented Spanish. “The rest of Latin America finds it amusing,” he explains. “It’s like a person from Alabama going to New York City. They realized we could not be undercover.”
The migrants and the immigration attorneys he talks to paint a dire picture of how the decisions to come to America are made.
“If you’re facing execution or starvation or rape, your choice is to either accept your fate or cross the border,” he says. “It is a death sentence to be a 15-year-old Salvadoran boy and the MS-13 says ‘either you join or die.’” Same for a young woman tapped to be a gang girlfriend.
He gave all the migrants the option to remain anonymous, and he was a little surprised at the number who gave their names. “I think that reflects a need for people to be humanized,” says Preve.
Preve, 66, made a career change in the early 2000s, moving from agroforestry to filmmaking. One of his earliest documentaries, Chagas: A Hidden Affliction, brought attention to a rampant disease that’s pretty much unheard of in the United States. Since then, he’s made almost 30 productions for television and film, most recently, From Sudan to Argentina.
Sometime, Somewhere is a more personal film for Preve. He tells film students at Light House Studio to pick a story they’re uniquely qualified to tell. “Immigrating from Latin America to Charlottesville is something I was uniquely qualified to tell,” he says.
And this story came with a special perk. “I got to sleep at home every night,” he says. “It was wonderful to stay in my hometown and shoot a film here.”
The image on the right shows how property owners on Preston Avenue could have fewer development rights under the new zoning if the Core Neighborhoods overlay is adopted. Image by City of Charlottesville.
A long and meticulous conversation has been held all year about proposed new rules and regulations for buildings in Charlottesville, and the Planning Commission will likely take a final vote on a recommendation on October 18.
Since a public hearing was held September 14, the six remaining planning commissioners have held four meetings to finalize their recommendation on what City Council should consider. That has resulted in many potential changes.
Most notably, there is a new proposal to limit building size on Preston Avenue, unless developers guarantee 20 percent of housing units as affordable and provide community space. Council would need to grant a special exception permit for additional height. Development on all but one other corridor would be by-right.
“The purpose is to ensure that larger new development projects in these corridors include community supportive amenities, like more affordable housing units, than would otherwise be required, [as well as] affordable commercial space for community assets like grocers, laundromats, or health services, or community-oriented space,” says Neighborhood Development Services Director James Freas.
Under the new proposal, all of the property between Rosser Avenue and Fourth Street NW would be designated as Corridor Mixed Use 3, which would allow less building space than the CX-5 and CX-8 districts that have been on the draft zoning map since it was released in early February.
That includes the land that Stony Point Development Group announced would be included in its expansion of the mixed-use Dairy Market project. Stony Point had expected to amend an existing special use permit to build seven-story buildings facing Preston Avenue, but withdrew the plans after public outcry. Technically, the company will be able to go through the amendment process even under the new development code, but it would still need approval from City Council.
The same Core Neighborhoods Corridor Overlay District would also apply to Cherry Avenue between Ridge Street and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard, but the draft zoning map has designated that as CX-3.
There is already a precedent for this approach. In September, City Council approved a rezoning at 501 Cherry Ave., to allow 118 units with 24,000 square feet of new commercial space. Beforehand, Woodard Properties had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Fifeville Neighborhood Association to work with Piedmont Housing Alliance to provide affordable units and offer space for Twice is Nice and the Music Resource Center.
Chris Henry, president of Stony Point Development Group, said the point of the zoning rewrite was to set developer expectations by allowing by-right development and not leaving decisions up to council.
“If a significant reduction in proposed density is desirable on Preston Avenue, we need to be comfortable with the significant reduction of affordable housing, tax revenue, and other community benefits that can be derived from a successful collaboration between city, developer, and community,” Henry said.
The Planning Commission will also consider a restoration of the “sensitive communities” districts that had been removed at the request of the city’s Housing Advisory Committee.
The appointed body has also reached consensus to recommend to City Council that some commercial uses be allowed in Residential-B and Residential-C without a special use permit if the property is on a corner lot. It will likely recommend the allowance of more height in several zoning districts.
City Council will hold two additional work sessions before its public hearing.
BRHD’s new Outreach Network will assist community health workers with networking, collaborating, and learning about other area resources. File photo.
Since the pandemic, the health care industry has been rapidly evolving to address new challenges, staffing shortages, and high rates of burnout. As part of its effort to support local health care workers, the Blue Ridge Health District is launching the Outreach Network on October 18 to boost some of its most vital members: outreach professionals.
Encompassing a broad swath of roles, outreach professionals are health care workers who work closely with the community to improve outcomes and help people access resources. “There are many types of outreach professionals that play important roles in our local health care system,” says Jennifer Reilly, BRHD’s outreach network coordinator. “Here at BRHD, for example, we have an amazing team of community health workers who do a wide range of work.”
From immunization clinics to STI testing to free car seat and crib distribution events, CHWs work to connect community members with resources and promote public health efforts. “Community health workers are the embodiment of public health. When people cannot get to health services, CHWs make sure the health services get to them,” says Reilly. “[They] know the community in and out and really represent the bridge to becoming healthier and more able to access care and services.”
Though burnout levels are high among all health care workers post-pandemic, outreach professionals have experienced especially high levels of physical and emotional exhaustion, according to research published in the National Institute for Health’s Library of Medicine. In addition to hiring additional community health workers, the BRHD hopes to support its outreach professionals by connecting them with resources through the Outreach Network.
“We are very fortunate that we have so many organizations in the area doing wonderful things, but it can be challenging to keep abreast of all of these great resources. One goal of the BRHD Outreach Network is to help outreach workers become more familiar with all of these fantastic community assets,” says Reilly. “The more we know about what is happening, the better we can be sure those services, events, and organizations are more readily accessible to the communities who need them.”
Beyond fostering connections with community resources, the BRHD’s new network will connect outreach professionals with career resources.
“The BRHD Outreach Network will support current and future outreach workers by offering opportunities for numerous trainings at no cost, networking and collaborating with outreach workers from other organizations, and exploring invaluable resources within our communities that can be utilized to support those we serve,” says Reilly. “We will look closer at the needs assessment that was completed, giving us an even better lens as to how the BRHD Outreach Network can help community health workers and similar positions in the weeks, months, and years to come.”
“Come to the Woods” calls for repeat viewing of Susan McAlister’s show “Canopy,” at Les Yeux du Monde through October 29. Supplied photo.
Susan McAlister uses a number of approaches to landscape, from direct physical representations to more nebulous suggestions of place, to riffs on the basic forms and patterns that are the building blocks of the natural world. “My process is essentially the same whether I’m working representationally or abstractly,” says McAlister, whose work is the subject of “Canopy,” now on view at Les Yeux du Monde. “I’m finding form, I’m pushing color, I’m layering materials, I’m thinking about the relation of all of these elements together.”
The plein air tradition of sketching and painting out of doors is central to McAlister’s practice. “When I take my walks in nature,” she says, “I think about the shapes that are happening and the way the light moves through those shapes and how a vine travels up a tree and continues over your head. I’m considering all of this and what it’s like being engulfed by nature and how that makes my heart feel.”
While outside, McAlister also forages for natural found objects, which she uses as inspiration, sometimes incorporating them into her assemblages, thus rooting them in a specific time and place. “Faunus I,” for example, features a feather, petal, and bee. Originally inspired by a visit to the Matisse room at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., McAlister took the concept of cut-outs and ran with it, adding three-dimensionality into the mix to produce her gorgeous explosions of layered cut paper.
Luminous vistas of the Blue Ridge cloaked in fuzzy haze are conjured up from a combination of McAlister’s observation and memory. “These wooded landscapes are about my childhood. I grew up where my playground was the uncut forest outside my door. That kind of tangled landscape, that’s orderly but also disorderly, is endlessly appealing to me.”
In “Near and Far,” the haze has been replaced with rain-washed crispness. McAlister uses extraordinary brushwork here, with bold expressive slashes, smears, and clumps of paint that describe the varied mountain terrain of woods, meadows, and streams.
“Meeting in the Woods” depicts the sort of tangled woodland that appeals to McAlister. In this rollicking work, the scene has shifted from the gently sloping hills of memory seen in “Wooded Way,” “The Engagement,” and “Evening,” to more rugged Montana. McAlister has amped up her brush work accordingly, with slashing strokes that describe the wind tossing the trees, and add points of visual interest to the work.
“Spring Shadows & the Forest Floor” seems to exist on the knife edge between abstraction and representation. McAlister has visually nailed the sense of wind, using large brushes to produce blurry contrails of paint along with quick daubs of green that suggest fluttering leaves.
The artist’s muted palette perfectly embodies the temporal and atmospheric conditions she wishes to convey. Light greens pinpoint the season as early spring. Dove gray represents the recesses of the forest interior. Elegant inky blotches describe roots, branches, and tree trunks, tiny flecks of cerulean blue and stark white brighten the sky with intense, pure pigment. In the upper left quadrant, the absence of green implies that we are at the edge of a clearing or body of water where the land opens up and the view of the sky is more expansive.
McAlister’s palette of sunny pastels is derived from Bonnard. It’s a challenging color scheme to make serious, particularly for an artist who states, “I don’t want to be cute, I don’t want to be sweet. I’m most pleased when my paintings read as bold and expressive.” So, she tempers her palette’s prettiness with the introduction of duller shades, gesture, and layering. You can see this in the rectilinear zones of “Edge of the Forest.”
“Come to the Woods” has a curious power that seems to build with each repeated viewing. The initial impression is of a work that is delicate and fragile, thanks to its pale colors and softly undulating shapes. But, the complex arrangement of pink, blue, green, and yellow and the interplay between painted surface and line, create interesting visual relationships. With its tessellated forms and passages that cascade down the picture plane, the work is really a deconstructed landscape.
Four paintings—“Vert,” “From the Open Window,” “Lost in the Forest,” and “Lush”—are hung together on the wall. McAlister did this to create a bigger expanse of painted surface. But the quartet’s juxtaposition, with two representational works and two abstract ones, hits at the crux of McAlister’s oeuvre, which is really about painting in and of itself, not one specific style. You see in these works, the ease with which the artist switches gears and her incredible facility, no matter how she’s painting. The “what” she’s painting remains a constant, however.
“Landscape is where my heart is,” she says. “It’s what I want to talk about.” As the works in the show reveal, McAlister uses various inventive means to “talk” about it, but one thing is clear, she is using a decidedly contemporary language to do so.
Chris D. Evans plays King Hedley II, a former prisoner who’s selling refrigerators to raise enough money to open a video store in his neighborhood. Photo by Eze Amos.
When the final showing of King Hedley II wraps at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, the Charlottesville Players Guild will have strode through the entire 20th century on one stage. Dozens of actors will have stepped into the lives of characters generations apart, some even reprising their roles across multiple plays. And audiences will have been swept up in a rich world of Black history, music, folklore, and drama from the pen of legendary playwright August Wilson.
King Hedley II runs Thursdays through Sundays until October 22, and is directed by Darnell Lamont Walker and Jessica Harris. Hedley, the story of a once-imprisoned man who will do anything to gather enough money to start a video store, is a difficult show which, like any Wilson play, demands a great deal from its cast as the story’s tension ratchets tighter and tighter until the end. Hedley marks not just the end of a season full of Wilson plays, including Seven Guitars and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, but seven years of productions that cover the entirety of Wilson’s 10-play American Century Cycle. The completion of the Cycle is an enormous achievement, not only for a Charlottesville cultural organization, but for any arts or theater institution—as Leslie Scott-Jones puts it, “as far as we know, no other Black history and culture organization, and only 12 professional institutions,” have finished Wilson’s famous cycle of plays.
“We need to celebrate this achievement,” says Scott-Jones, who is the Charlottesville Players Guild’s artistic director and the Jefferson School’s curator of public programs, learning and engagement. “We should recognize that as Black artists, what we do in theatrical practice has very real and important ties to Wilson. We need to talk about it.”
Following King Hedley II, the CPG will host a weeklong event, Wilsonian Soldiers: An August Wilson Symposium, from October 23 to 28, which will feature panel discussions and master classes by professionals with an intimate understanding of Wilson’s work. They’ll lead conversations about the men and women of his oeuvre, the cadence and lyricism of his dialogue, and his plays’ music and spirituality. The symposium will also include a performance of the playwright’s memoir, How I Learned What I Learned.
Leslie Scott-Jones. Photo by Sanjay Suchak.
Wilson’s Century Cycle, also known as the Pittsburgh Cycle in reference to the plays’ frequent setting in the city’s Hill District, explores and examines Black history and culture, spirituality, love, pain, and so much more through the lives of blues singers, cab drivers, former Negro League players, husbands, mothers, brothers and sisters, neighbors, and matriarchs. Wilson’s stories are as grounded as siblings arguing over a family heirloom, yet they can also entertain the fantastic, such as with the recurring character of Aunt Ester, who King Hedley II says is over 300 years old.
Scott-Jones has performed in three of the Cycle’s productions—as Rose in Fences, Louise in Seven Guitars, and Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—and says Wilson intended in every way for his plays to be exhausting, emotionally and physically, for the actors.
“In order to do Wilson, you have to have a strong constitution,” she says. “He was writing the Black lived experience, and through the 20th century, the times and the things he was writing about were not easy. Every single play has some sort of migration story. … Every single play has somebody that’s in trouble with the law. Every single play has a death. Every single play has some sort of relationship that is in turmoil. And all of those things are compounded by, you know, [being] Black and living in America.”
“It’s very real, it’s very nuanced,” says Aiyana Marcus, a Cycle actor and playwright. “He does not shy away from the complexity that is Black culture. There’s so many nuances and layers of spiritual meanings, economic and political, cultural layers, things that seem like dichotomies. … The secrets that we keep and the secrets that we want to tell.”
“Through August Wilson’s plays, he inadvertently established his community through other individuals,” says Nicholas Berkley, who plays Stool Pigeon in King Hedley II. “When you see these other people participate in plays, we grow close as a cast, and we become family.”
Berkley began performing with the CPG as Hedley (King’s father) in Seven Guitars, and considers Wilson a storyteller whose writing is a form of archiving. “Wilson’s work is an excellent chronicle that should remind those of African American descent to remember where they came from, look at where they are, and appreciate that space.”
One of the most distinctive elements of a Wilson play is his dialogue, crafted to roll off the tongue in an effortless, almost musical pattern. Wilson was as much a playwright as he was a social historian. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Tony winner, and posthumous Oscar contender spent his life listening to the people around him—on the streets, in bars, in cigar shops—recording their unique phrasings and the patterns of their speech, and using that language to weave his distinctive scripts.
“It is an honor to do Wilson’s work—it is not easy,” says Marcus. “Just the complexity of the work, and the cadence of language. … There is something about getting my mouth around the rhythms of Wilson that is a whole other process in and of itself.”
From left to right: Jordan Sykes as Mister, King Hedley II’s friend, Cadessa Davis as Tonya, King’s wife, and Denise Folley as Ruby, King’s mother.
Marcus, who wrote She Echoes on the Vine, which was also performed at Jefferson School by the CPG, studied theater as an undergrad, and first met Scott-Jones while auditioning for a play that she was directing at Live Arts. That led to Marcus being cast as Bernice in the fall 2019 production of The Piano Lesson, and later as Black Mary in Gem of the Ocean.
“You can feel the weight of the historical context,” says Marcus about Wilson’s women. “Women did have a certain place that you can feel. A certain level of subservience, but also there is a magnetic presence that they have. They are still very highly valued and respected by the men and other folks in their community. But the way that they can use wisdom in the way that they want to get their point across, it’s not always in the loudest way or the most obvious way.”
King Hedley II, written in 1999 and set in the Reagan ’80s, speaks directly to the weight of history, the value of learning the past, and changing one’s circumstances for the better. Each character seeks something new in their lives, but are struck in painful ways by the legacies of people they love or the city they live in.
“[Tonya] is a woman who is looking for the confidence in her relationship, and trying to, a lot of times, reel her husband back in from making certain—probably not the best—choices in life,” says Cadessa Davis, who plays the title character’s wife in King Hedley II.
In her second play with the Jefferson School, Davis performs her role with range. Tonya’s restraint gives way to incredulity and eventually an explosive monologue that exposes both a vulnerability and fear as well as a frustration and determination to be heard.
“She can say what she wants to say to [King],” says Davis, “but that doesn’t mean he’s going to follow through with listening to her.”
Davis didn’t start acting until 2018; before performing in the Century Cycle, she had stuck to musicals. For King Hedley II, she specifically auditioned for Tonya, in whom she saw a certain defiance and an effort by the character to put her foot down.
“She is truly fighting for her marriage and for her husband to love her. She’s a total 180 from the other character that I played, Risa in Two Trains [Running],” she says. “Two different characters, but totally a lot of fun to play both, and explore my range.”
August Wilson. Photo by Rich Sugg/TNS/zumapress.org
A safe, predominantly Black rehearsal space to explore that range, via the work of a celebrated Black playwright, has been a powerful gift for the actors who have performed the Cycle at the Jefferson School.
“When you, as a person, feel fully seen, feel completely able to be who you are … absolutely, you’re going to be more willing to be vulnerable in front of people,” says Scott-Jones. “And that’s what acting is all about: being vulnerable.”
“There is a freedom there,” says Marcus. “Especially for a number of us, our experience in theater has been in predominantly white spaces, not even necessarily in predominantly diverse spaces. And understanding the context of what it’s like to live in Charlottesville, it was very, very freeing.”
As Scott-Jones and Andrea Douglas, executive director of the Jefferson School, shepherd their joint project to its conclusion, they hope the public will attend the accompanying symposium to learn more about the power of Wilson’s work.
“The classes and the conversations that we’re having apply to not just theater, they apply to literature, they apply to music, they apply to history and social studies,” says Scott-Jones. “Anybody who is involved in the arts at all should absolutely be present for some of these conversations. It’s not just talking about what we’ve done, it’s talking about the work of being a theatrical artist, being an artist, on a global level.”
“Just like Shakespeare,” she says, Wilson’s “work is absolutely transferable to anybody who watches it.”
