Guerilla Photography Comes To Kirk Avenue; Theatre Troop Moves

Laker production at Kirk Avenue:  The Carless Brit, River Laker (about to be featured in a documentary about Roanoke) is well known for the Emerging Artists Series he stages at the Roanoke City library in downtown Roanoke. Now, in conjunction with Shadowbox Cinema he’s bringing underground “urban adventurer” Joseph Carnevale to Kirk Avenue Music Hall on Saturday, August 7 at 8 p.m.

Carnevale likes to take photographs and videos in restricted, off-limits areas – the ledge of a high rise building, freight trains, abandoned property and sewer tunnels for starters. His website address – nopromiseofsafety.com – might be a tip-off.

Laker said Carnevale is somewhat familiar with Roanoke: “he got stranded here once … when he jumped a freight train.” The show on August 7 ($7 admission) will feature a slide show, videos and conversation. Time Magazine labeled Carnevale one of its top ten guerilla artists for 2010.

The 22-year-old artist, a college student in North Carolina, was once arrested in Raleigh, for turning construction area warning cones into creatures that looked like robots. “The police didn’t find that funny,” said Laker. His own recent film retrospective at Kirk Avenue Music Hall was the first he produced away from the library – not counting his temporary Carless Brit Museum. (see theshadowboxcinema.com for more on the Aug. 7 event.)

Gamut Moves: Gamut, a local theatre group known for its productions of cutting-edge 20th-and-21st-century plays, will have a new home this fall at the K.W. “Pete” Smith Theatre on Campbell Avenue. Gamut, which stands for “Gypsies And Misfits Unknown Theatre,” will produce four plays in the space between October 2010, and October 2011.  The group is subleasing the facility from Studio Roanoke, the not-for-profit theatre company that specializes in the development of new works.

“It’s really a bonanza for theatre lovers in the region,” said Kenley Smith, Studio Roanoke’s artistic director.  “Gamut seems like a perfect fit for this space, and I feel that their mission is wholly compatible with ours.  Together, we’ll bring in a dozen plays over the next year that have never been seen before in Roanoke.”

Miriam Frazier, artistic director of Gamut, agreed. “Between the two groups, the Roanoke community will now have twice the innovative theatre under one roof.”  Although Studio Roanoke will provide ticketing and front-of-house services, the Gamut productions will be mounted independently of Studio Roanoke’s own eight-play season.