The newest issue of Verve is hitting the streets as we speak. You can get a sneak peek online. The cover story focuses on The Magnetic Field, a new theater and coffee bar that’s opening in the biggest new development to hit Asheville’s River Arts District in years – the Glen Rock Depot collection of work-force apartments and retail space. There’s a big grand opening for the Glen Rock on Thursday.
From Verve:
Glen Rock, likely the first LEED-certified multi-use building in Asheville, will hold a ribbon-cutting on December 2. Tenants have started moving into the apartments, which leased up well before the building was completed. The Magnetic Field’s first show, The Bernstein Family Christmas Spectacular, opens December 8.
Chall Gray, a former marketing and development director for Asheville Bravo Concerts, plans to use the performance space to showcase original works. Rows of old movie theater seats will hold up to 64. The stage will be open to dance, comedy, readings and movie screenings, but Gray, a former producer of Asheville’s late-night No Shame Theatre, hopes to roll out provocative new theatrical works by playwrights around the Southeast. He’ll do that with the help of Steven Samuels, a former manager of New York’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company who has taught theater at NYU and elsewhere.
They’ll kick it off with the irreverent, over-the-top Bernstein Family show, a collection of skits that Gray helped produce in 2008. But their first serious production, which rolls out January 13, is When Jekyll Met Hyde, starring veteran actress Tracey Johnston-Crum, Asheville Bravo’s current executive director. The play is written by Samuels.
Above, find cover girl Johnston-Crum in a playful mood during a break in the make-up session before the big cover shoot.