In “Rapture, Blister, Burn” at NC Stage , Rebecca Morris stars as a strong, independent woman quick to stand her ground. In many respects, she’s the woman Morris wishes to be. “So in the rehearsal process, there was a lot of drawing that out (of me),” Morris said. “Your personal power or potency, standing on my own two feet and speaking my mind, whether I think people are going to agree with me or not, is very difficult for me to do.” Morris lives with her husband in Marshall, but she hasn’t

The Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre is rehearsing a piece that depends on props and costuming that aren’t quite holding together. At this point, performances are two weeks away, and Susan Collard doesn’t appear too worried. After 38 years of ups and down and dips and turns she could never have choreographed, Collard responds to these malfunctions with a smile. “You have these visions of what you want to create,” Collard said. “And then (you have) the bill, and then ‘how do you raise your

NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series on the Asheville Symphony Orchestra's search for its next music director. Here’s an interesting situation that become a piece of obscure trivia: Daniel Meyer was among six finalists this past season to become the next music director of the Fresno Philharmonic, in California. The person who won the position is Rei Hotoda. Now, Hotoda is one of six finalists to succeed Meyer on the podium of the Asheville Symphony . That intersection isn’t all that

NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series about the search for the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s next music director. The Asheville Symphony is a part-time orchestra. Everyone responsible for the music has another job, or two jobs. So it’s a little stunning to learn how many people applied to become the orchestra’s next music director. 437. This very part-time job attracted 437 applicants. That tells you a few things. Yes, people want to come to Asheville. That’s no mystery. And yes, it’s a

Wiley Cash grew up in a solid, supportive family, attended great schools and is quick to say he is the product of a sheltered, all-American privilege. So even though he sets his stories in his native North Carolina, Cash is writing as an outsider. “I had to go to graduate school in Louisiana, however many decades removed from the event itself, to learn about the defining moment in my hometown’s history,” Cash said. That defining event, as Cash put it, is a labor strike in 1929 at the Loray Mill

Female readers of young adult fiction have lifted Stephanie Perkins onto the list of New York Times Bestsellers, an appearance on “The Today Show” and other notoriety most young authors would covet. For Perkins, that meteoric success triggered a crippling bout of depression. “I freaked out. I freaked out bigtime ,” she said. “My self-confidence was so small, it felt like a mistake. I felt like a fraud. I was being sent on tours for the first time and didn’t know how to do any of that, and it was

Some might wonder why there’s an annual conference dedicated to a tiny college that shut down 60 years ago. That conference, “ReViewing ,” going into its ninth year, until now has been the sole domain of arts professors with particular interests in multidisciplinary practice and the groundbreaking history of Black Mountain College . Jeff Arnal, the executive director of the museum and arts center dedicated to the college, in downtown Asheville, is trying to heighten the contemporary relevance to

Murphy Funkhouser Capps begins writing her plays by living her life. That’s why it’s impossible to separate the writer and performer from the teenage runaway, the former solo parent, the woman whose husband is battling bone cancer. Funkhouser Capps’ new autobiographical show, “Carry On,” is an expansion of her first solo show, “Crazy Bag,” which premiered eight years ago. In both, Funkhouser Capps uses luggage as a metaphor for stuffing away life’s accumulated baggage, unpacking and facing it or

Ann Dunn has spent her entire life in motion -- by necessity, force of will, restlessness and, through it all, a curiosity that refuses to sit still. At age 71, Dunn has so many active elements in her life: She has a fulltime teaching schedule at UNC-Asheville. She’s working on her fourth book of poetry. Every summer, she dives into culturally immersive travels the world over, and she’s eager to share what she sees and learns both in her classroom, with her 11 grandchildren and anyone she has

If you want people to hear some new songs you’ve written, there’s an open-mike around Asheville almost any night of the week. But for songwriters who want to put a little more on the line, the One Stop hosts a songwriting competition every Wednesday night throughout the fall. This is the 11th year of the Brown Bag Songwriting Competition . Blue Ridge Public Radio arts producer Matt Peiken went to the opening night of the season to deliver this unique slice of local musical life. The competition