Willie Repoley named his company the Immediate Theatre Project , and watching Repoley in rehearsal, the name is clearly appropriate. Sets are minimal and casts are small -- and with his new original show, called “Burden,” -- the cast begins and ends with Repoley. The company’s plays only look like they can be mounted immediately. What Repoley really wants is to inspire immediate reactions from audiences. “Burden” runs through May 20 at Asheville’s NC Stage . “When I started the company, one of

Willie Repoley named his company the Immediate Theatre Project , and watching Repoley in rehearsal, the name is clearly appropriate. Sets are minimal and casts are small -- and with his new original show, called “Burden,” -- the cast begins and ends with Repoley. The company’s plays only look like they can be mounted immediately. What Repoley really wants is to inspire immediate reactions from audiences. “Burden” runs through May 20 at Asheville’s NC Stage . “When I started the company, one of

Andrew Finn Magill had no choice. From his bloodline to his name, Irish heritage stamped Magill’s identity. His parents played traditional Irish music in the home. He ditched Suzuki method violin practice to play Irish music. And he went to Ireland twice to compete in the all-Ireland violin championships. As a kid, he would take part in the jam sessions at Asheville’s Jack of the Wood, and his father, Jim, founded the Swannanoa Gathering . So what is Magill doing composing and playing Brazilian

As you went about your sunny Saturday in Western North Carolina, you might have been unaware tens of thousands across the country celebrated a holiday of sorts. Scores of people traveled across town and, in some cases, across mountain ranges to browse, mingle and find platters of gold in Asheville during the ninth annual Record Store Day . While the digital era of music wrote the epitaph for every major record store chain, independent record stores in Asheville and around the country have

Like most young singer-songwriters committed to their craft, Asheville’s Carly Taich has carved a line in the ground between her youth and adulthood. That line is her debut album, “Reverie.” Taich sees “Reverie” as a breakup album, of sorts. Several songs are a goodbye to the bands and music Taich made before moving to Asheville four years ago. Taich and her band perform April 21 at Ambrose West in Asheville. “I wasn’t even going to record them,” she said of her songs on “Reverie.” It’s easy as

Brenda Lilly went to college to become an actress and moved to Hollywood with her dreams set on sitcoms. She eventually found her way in television as a writer — no easy feat in a town and industry built on patriarchy — and in the early 2000s she co-created the family television drama “State of Grace.” So why did Lilly, a fifth-generation Asheville native, move back home to the mountains? “I kind of thought ‘you know, I’ve done what I came here to do,’” she said. “You know, I don’t want to have

An estimated 3.5 million Americans experience homelessness in a given year. And while downtown Asheville is the public face of our region’s homelessness, there’s an artistic effort at Blue Ridge Community College, in Hendersonville, to spotlight rural homelessness. “Stories from the Table” is a new play written by a Joshua Bledsoe, a communications instructor at the college, and students from the theater department. There are five performances of between April 12 through 15 in the college’s

Festival season is upon Western North Carolina, but the quirkiest of our festivals is already behind us. The eighth annual “ (Re)Happening , ” on the grounds of the former Black Mountain College, drew hundreds March 31 to listen, touch, explore and experience. The festival, put on by Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center , pays homage to the college’s history by inviting artists and collaborations that defy categorization or interpretation. “Many of the artforms are new to me. That’s not

A couple years ago, three Asheville women in their mid-20s bonded as production assistants on a film made in Atlanta. When the filmmakers decided to tour their film around the country, the women here had an inspiration of their own. “So I just thought to myself, we should have them in Asheville. We should organize a screening and we should show some of our films, too, and how about other cool people from the area?” said Brittany Jackson. “Why not just make it a weekend and call it a film

If you’re a singer-songwriter who only needs an acoustic guitar for company, you can create and rehearse your music pretty much anywhere. But if you’re in a band, you need a place to spread out and be loud without bringing down nearby property values—or the police. Bands in Asheville are so desperate for affordable spaces that there’s enthusiastic support—and growing financial support—behind an effort to open what would amount to just four rehearsal spaces. “We know it’s kinda tiny and it’s not