Novelist Julie Otsuka’s acclaimed When the Emperor Was Divine has been adapted for the stage by Peter Mellen of Armstrong Atlantic State University, and the college’s Masquers theater troupe is performing a staged reading at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12 in the AASU Jenkins Hall theater. Admission is free.
When the Emperor Was Divine is set in 1942, as Japanese Americans are rounded up and sent to internment camps. It’s the story of one family, taken from their modest stucco house in California and forced to live, under unthinkable conditions, in a remote desert camp in Utah.
Otsuka then follows the family members, post–liberation, as they return to what remains of their previous life, facing continued prejudice and humiliation from their Caucasian neighbors. Reconstruction, ultimately, is not what it could (and should) have been.
Nov. 13–15, the Masquers are doing Joe DiPietro’s comic mystery The Art of Murder in Jenkins Hall. The New Jersey–born DiPietro is best known for his wonderful play I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change.
In The Art of Murder, Jack and his painter wife, Annie, are laying plans to kill their soon–to–arrive visitor, Vincent.
Admission is $10, with discounts available for military, seniors, alumni members, and students/children. AASU staff, faculty, and students presenting valid AASU PirateCard get in free. Call (912) 344.2801.
The Masquers’ Nov. 19–22 production is John Patrick’s Love is a Time of Day.
On another theater note, playwright Ja A. Jahannes’ Mister Mercer is onstage at the Lucas Theatre Friday at 8 p.m. It’s “a lighthearted musical play about the late Johnny Mercer, America’s most gifted popular songwriter,” and it follows Mr. M and his wife Ginger as a singer named Darlene reviews his life and rarified career.
Ray Ellis, Pepi Streiff, Pamela Sears and Jamie Keena star in this local production from the J–Rep troupe, which includes a big ol’ fedora full of classic Mercer tunes.
Tickets are $25 at (912) 525–5050.
For your entertainment...
She walks, she talks, she crawls on her belly like a reptile. Just one thin dime, one tenth of a dollar! Step right up, folks.
So begins one of the great comedy records of the 1950s (the Coasters’ “Little Egypt”), as accurate an introduction as could be for the impending Savannah visit of the Pretty Things Peepshow.
Stepping right up to the Wormhole stage Dec. 5, the Pretty Things Peepshow is all right there in the name – it’s an old–fashioned burlesque stripper performance, of the Gypsy Rose Lee variety (it’s all about the tease, gentlemen).
The tassled young ladies, in fact, look like golden–age pinups from the days of Bettie Page.
In fact, the New York–based revue is tailored to resemble a full–package burlesque performance, with everything from sword– and lightbulb–swallowing freaks, contortionists, fire–eating, comedy and music and thrilling acts of derring–do.
And yes, the peep–show gals, bumping and grinding: Go–Go Amy, Bettina May and Miss Heather Holliday. The fast–talking emcee’s name is Donny Vomit.
Admission is $10; doors open at 8 p.m., and the show begins at 10.
Check out www.prettythingspeepshow.com to watch a video and see what’s in store.
Quoth the Coasters: Ying yang!
Musical notes
If you missed jazz/blues octogenarian Mose Allison at the recent Savannah Jazz Festival, have no fear, because the piano–playing legend has two dates at the Jazz Corner club on Hilton Head Island. He’ll be there Dec. 4 and 5, with 8 p.m. concerts both days. See www.thejazzcorner.com...
...Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. brings “How Can I Keep From Singing,” the annual Savannah Children’s Choir winter concert, at First Presbyterian Church, 520 Washington Ave. Directed by Roger Moss, the choir is Savannah’s only non–profit community choir for children in 2nd through 8th grades. Admission to the 3 p.m. performance is $10 for adults, $5 for students. CS
