Calendar of Events

John Patrick Shanley is considered by many to be one of America’s most important living playwrights. Born and raised in the Bronx, Shanley is best known for writing the screenplays for Moonstruck and Joe vs. the Volcano. His stage work includes “Danny and Deep Blue Sea”,” Savage in Limbo”, and most recently “Defiance”. His play “Doubt: A Parable” was first produced in New York in 2004 and has gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Drama Desk Award, and the Tony Award for best play. The play will make the transition from stage to screen this winter, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis.

Doubt follows a controversy that arises in a Bronx Catholic School during the 1960s. A nun and priest clash first over Catholic doctrine, and then over the priest’s questionable attention towards the school’s first black student.

This play is a joint production between Hollins University and Virginia Tech and is directed by Hollins’ Ernest Zulia. “Doubt” is being performed along with “Savage In Limbo” as part of Hollins’ spotlight on John Patrick Shanley’s work. Please visit www.hollins.edu (ticket office 540-362-6517) and www.theatre.vt.edu (ticket office 540-231-5615) and support both theatres in their future productions.

Nara Dondog come to the Roanoke Valley area with years of talent and experience as both a dancer and choreographer from her native Mongolia. After training for eight years at the prestigious Perm State Ballet College, Ms. Dondog worked for fourteen years as a principle dancer with the Mongolian Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet. Her work has spanned the globe, from Bulgaria to France to England and now to America, where she and her husband and former Roanoke Ballet Theatre's head of school Unurbat Gunaajav have recently formed the Virginia Ballet Academy and UNA Dance Theatre.

"Silent Thought " is a neoclassical ballet choreographed by Nara Dondog that originally comes from her work in Mongolia. The piece was originally conceived as both a dance and a film documentary to inspire young Mongolian ballet dancers. The 2nd Annual Roanoke Arts Festival November 8th performance will mark the "Silent Thought" American premiere.

Nelson Bond was both a talented science fiction and fantasy author as well as one of the first core contributors to the golden age of television. Bond began publishing short stories in the 1930s. As he gained fame he began adapting his work first for the radio then for the new technology of television. He worked prolifically into the late 1940s writing pieces for science fiction magazines and over 200 scripts for a variety of radio programs. Bond even penned the TV adaptation of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast. After a brief stint in Hollywood, Nelson Bond retired from writing and moved back to Roanoke, where he eventually became an antique bookseller. He was awarded the forth Author Emeritus Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1998.

Jack Kestner retired early from a career in Military Journalism to bring his children to live by his childhood home on the side of Clinch Mountain in Washington County, Virginia. An avid observer of his surroundings, both on the mountainside and of the larger world, he began writing a local news column for the Bristol Herald Courier. For the next 18 years, Jack Kestner wrote about everything from politics to hummingbirds. His works include “A View from the Mountain” and his adventure story “Fire Tower”.

Excerts from Nelson Bond’s work will be read by journalists and fellow award-winning writers Mike Allen and Bill Ruehlmann, both of whom knew Bond personally. Accompanied by the Paul Dellinger as moderator, these three authors will give personal insight to Bond/Kestner’s life and work.

John Patrick Shanley is considered by many to be one of America’s most important living playwrights. Born and raised in the Bronx, Shanley is best known for writing the screenplays for Moonstruck and Joe vs. the Volcano. His stage work includes “Danny and Deep Blue Sea”,” Savage in Limbo”, and most recently “Defiance”. His play “Doubt: A Parable” was first produced in New York in 2004 and has gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Drama Desk Award, and the Tony Award for best play. The play will make the transition from stage to screen this winter, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis.

Doubt follows a controversy that arises in a Bronx Catholic School during the 1960s. A nun and priest clash first over Catholic doctrine, and then over the priest’s questionable attention towards the school’s first black student.

This play is a joint production between Hollins University and Virginia Tech and is directed by Hollins’ Ernest Zulia. “Doubt” is being performed along with “Savage In Limbo” as part of Hollins’ spotlight on John Patrick Shanley’s work. Please visit www.hollins.edu (ticket office 540-362-6517) and www.theatre.vt.edu (ticket office 540-231-5615) and support both theatres in their future productions.

Paul Harrill is a native of Knoxville, Tennessee who now lives and works in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His 2001 short film Gina, An Actress, Age 29 won the Jury Prize for Short Filmmaking at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. His most recent work, Quick Feet, Soft Hands premiered in April at the Nashville Film Festival. Currently teaching cinema courses at Virginia Tech, Paul Harrill runs the weblog "Self Reliant Films" - a website that promotes independent, regionally based, low budget filmmaking. Visit "Self Reliant Films" website www.selfreliantfilm.com and Paul Harrill's website www.lovellfilms.com for more information.

Southern Stories: Two Films by Sundance Award-Winner Paul Harrill will be presented by Harrill himself at the historic Grandin Theatre, Roanoke's only locally owned and operated movie theatre.