Spoletoblog

Hello? Is this thing on?

Welcome back to Spoletoblog for 2006, our second year on the Web. The festival starts in just two weeks, and that means things are really starting to wake up here in Charleston.

Rehersals have begun.

Blogs are blooming.

Performers are arriving, dropping out, and in some cases, coming back.   

And, for the second year in a row, The Post and Courier will introduce a new overview critic. I suppose it's not official yet, so I won't tell you his name (although his initials are Joshua Rosenblum), but Patrick found out anyway...

And just like you'll never see the same festival event one year to the next (with, uh, the obvious exception of Don Giovanni), so too is this year's Spoletoblog different from last year's. Our 2005 coverage of the festival represented The Post and Courier's first extended foray into interactive, instant media, and in the past year that effort has grown from one blog into Postscripts, a network of sites that connects us to the local blogosphere.

Last year we covered what other professional writers had to say about Spoleto 2005. This year, in addition to rounding up those usual suspects, we'll also tell you what regular people have to say about the festival by covering conversations on dozens of active local blogs.

We expect you'll see multiple staff names on items posted here, and perhaps more photos than our first go-round. But a blog is like a good live performance -- the audience is a part of the energy, sometimes there are hecklers, and there's always the possibility that something serendipitous will change everything.

So don't just read Spoletoblog -- be part of it.

Soon the soiree!

The weather is looking a little iffy out there, but that's not bad news if you're planning to attend the Spoleto Soiree at the Gaillard. You've got two options: a $75 combo ticket that gets you Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the soiree, or a $35 ticket that just gets you in the party at 10...

I just got off the phone with the box office, and tickets are still available for both the dance and the party. Click here to get 'em, or go analog and talk to a human being who will set you up at 579-3100.

Still not sure? Here's Chester Jacinto to make the pitch:

Marion Square, first Saturday

Spoleto may be the engine that drives the festival season, but Piccolo is its heartbeat. You can feel it at Marion Square, particularly on the first weekend. That's when the moms and dads and kids are out in full force, when there's music and dance and all that energy...

In our family, we've been taking the kids out to Piccolo at Marion Square for years. They complain about the heat, the traffic, the crowds. We buy them drinks. At some point, one of us says "Fine, if all you want to do is complain, you just sit there and we'll go enjoy this without you." And then they say "Oh, we're just kidding."

Opening observations

Quickie observations and stuff overheard at today's opening...

• Turnout for the opening ceremony was nice -- all the chairs were full, and the crowd stretched about half a block up Broad. The quest for shade helped string things out: People moved folding chairs onto the south sidewalk to stay out of the sun.
• The healthiest shade was south of the event at Exchange and East Bay, where it was downright cool. Unfortunately, the sound design was such that that this comfort came at a tradeoff. You really couldn't hear what the speakers were saying.
• Maestro David Stahl, music director for the CSO, led the orchestra's brass ensemble before the speeches began and dedicated the performance to P&C Spoleto critic Bob Jones, who died in November at age 72. A nice touch of class
• They're expecting record box office this year.
• Joe Riley gets the quote: Spoleto causes the city "to become, for 17 days, the center of the world's art stage." Which sounds good to us, since that makes this, for 17 days, the blog at the center of the world's arts stage. Hello.
• Last year's festival had ticket-buyers from every state but South Dakota, "and we've been working on South Dakota." So basically, if you know someone from South Dakota and you can convince them to buy a ticket and come on down, we'll promise to make an inordinately big deal about it. We're serious. We've got a bounty on South Dakota Spoleto fans. First one gets... well, actually, we don't have any Spoletoblog schwag yet, but just prove that you're here from South Dakota and we'll think of something...

Opening ceremony gallery

Some photos from today's opening ceremony are now up over at the cleverly named photo album "Opening ceremony."

If you've got photos you'd like to see on this blog, e-mail them to us here.

(11:45 p.m. update: For those of you who are out of town, here's a 45-second taste of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Brass Ensemble, recorded just before noon this morning. Warm temps, shade, nice little breeze, and music...Download cso_brass_5_27.mp3 dc... about 700kb)

Psst... it's started

The official start doesn't come until noon tomorrow, but for all practical purposes, Spoleto 2005 got underway Thursday evening. At 8 p.m., early bird theater-lovers at Dock Street got the first look at Mabou Mines "Dollhouse," one of the most buzzworthy of the first-week offerings.

It's not hard to recognize the change downtown: Tents fill Marion Square as if a foreign army has encamped in the city; stagehands in black jeans and T-shirts catch cigarettes in alleyways and sidewalks. Casually dressed fans converge on a venue all at once, as if  released in a wave from a single, enormous taxi. On Queen Street, a woman dressed like a gold-lame Cleopatra waits for someone beside the Footlights...

Yet there is also the sense that a last moment of calm is upon us. The air is cool and clean, the traffic surprisingly light.

In the morning, convention crowds will empty out, replaced by festival fans. Hotel rooms will fill, and certain tables at certain restaurants will become currency. Reservations suggested.

For 17 days, a part of the city will become the Republic of Spoleto, and one never knows quite what to expect. Which is always the best part, if you ask us.

More photos at the Spoleto Scene photo album. Got a digital photo you'd like us to add to our gallery? Send it to us.

Preview does parties

Our buddy Bryce Donovan (left, with lady-slaying 'stache) weighed in on Spoleto this morning with a Preview cover story about festival parties.

Bryce's coverage gets to the bottom line: Who is going to be there, and how much is it going to cost?

Not that the publicly announced festival parties are always the biggest, best or coolest, but, on the other hand, they're the ones we know about. A review of private parties ... ah, now there's some unplowed ground. But I digress...

 

Have tickets, will party

Christine Randall spent years running the newspaper's festival coverage, and last month she assigned this package: Ask three local arts insiders to imagine their perfect Spoleto weekend.

The 17-day Spoleto/Piccolo Spoleto festival season provides Charlestonians so many options that festival veterans say there's an art to making the most of it. We asked three arts insiders to study their festival calendars and imagine their perfect Spoleto weekends, defining that idea however they wished. How will the members of our eclectic trio maximize their 2005 festival experience? Read on, and gather ye insights as ye may ...

The May 8 package collected the thoughts of Mona Kalinsky (first weekend), Gibbes executive director Betsy Fleming (second weekend) and arts provacateur Kevin Harrison (third weekend).