Two Art Shows at DCAC Worth Checking Out

Frank Stick and COA Highlight DCAC Month
Eure Best in Show: Mike Bennett “Savannah” (oil on canvas)
Frank Stick Memorial Art Show Eure Best in Show: Mike Bennett “Savannah” (oil on canvas)

There’s a couple of events that are happening at the Dare County Arts Council (DCAC) in Manteo in February and they’re really worth checking out.

First up, and it’s already in progress is the 40th Annual Frank Stick Memorial Art Show. The opening reception was last Saturday at the DCAC Gallery which is the old Dare County Courthouse.

The Frank Stick Art Show is open to anyone who is a member of the DCAC, meaning there is no preselection before the show.. Anyone can enter, and for a lot of young artists, it’s a great opportunity to get a sense of what is involved in a professional presentation.

The quality of the art is excellent and the themes addressed all encompassing.

Until recently the show was at Glenn Eure’s Ghost Fleet Gallery in Nags Head. Glenn and Pat Eure are getting a little older and the display area at the DCAC Gallery is larger allowing for a little better showing of the art.

The other show that’s worth checking out will be opening this Friday in the vault at the Gallery. Keeping in mind that at one time the DCAC building was a courthouse, the vault was a gigantic safe where the most valuable evidence and records were kept.

Now it is the home to the monthly featured show, and during February it’s COA’s Jewelry Student & Alumni Exhibit.

The exhibit is always an outstanding demonstration of creativity and craft. The exhibit gives COA students a chance to show what they are doing with their art and to get the feedback so necessary to become successful in their field.

Both shows will run throughout the month. The Frank Stick Memorial Art Show ends February 24. The Jewelry Exhibit will be on display until February 28.

Spamalot and The Holy Grail

Knights of the Round Table (LtoR): Sir Robin who slew the vicious Chicken of Bristol;e Homicidally Brave Lancelot;King Arthur; the Dashingly Handsome Sir Galahad; the strangely flatulent Sir Bedevere; and Arthur's servant Patsy.
Knights of the Round Table (LtoR): Sir Robin who slew the vicious Chicken of Bristol;e Homicidally Brave Lancelot;King Arthur; the Dashingly Handsome Sir Galahad; the strangely flatulent Sir Bedevere; and Arthur’s servant Patsy.
Spamalot-Fun and Irreverence

Spamalot,  a wonderful romp into insanity and non sequiturs, manages to poke fun at just about everyone and everything. Performed by the Theatre of Dare it’s worth the price of admission…and it doesn’t cost all that much.

The play, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, retains all of the original madness of the movie.

The iconic, classic scenes are all here.

The relative calling out to the undertaker to haul Not-Dead-Yet Fred away. And Fred telling anyone who will listen, “But I’m not dead yet.” In the stage version, Fred gets up and dances a bit.

This is 90 minutes of mayhem at its best.

The Lady of the Lake—the grantor of Excalibur to Arthur—is beautiful and wonderfully self-absorbed. Although she uses her feminine wiles to manipulate Dennis the Peasant into becoming Sir Galahad, as we learn at the end of the play, her plan all along was to marry King Arthur.

The Knights of the Round Table are given wonderfully descriptive names. 

There’s the Dashingly Handsome Sir Galahad; the Homicidally Brave Lancelot, Sir Robin who slew the vicious Chicken of Bristol and who personally wet himself at the Battle of Badon Hill, and the strangely flatulent Sir Bedevere.

What little plot there is centers on the search for the Holy Grail which is quickly found when it turns out that the Lady of the Lake has it. After that it becomes a question of returning the chalice, although where it is supposed to go is never made clear.

But that’s ok because what Spamalot is really about are the personal quests of the Knights of the Round Table.

Sir Robin dreams of producing a Broadway play. Sir Galahad finds his life mate in Herbert the imprisoned son of a noble. And Arthur finds his true live in the Lady of the Lake.

The Theatre of Dare is a community theatre group and this is community theatre at its absolute best. Three performances left: Friday and Saturday evening and a final matinee on Sunday, February 26. All performances are at the COA Manteo theater.