Spoleto

While in Charleston, we enjoyed seeing firsthand what the Spoleto Festival is like. I was amazed at the number and variety of performances from chamber music to dance to jazz to opera. In addition to the performances of people and groups Spoleto brings to town, numerous local organizations put on performances during the season as part of Piccolo Spoleto. It would probably not be exaggerating to say that there are hundreds of cultural events to explore in Charleston in the summer.

We saw an Italian marionette troupe called the Colla Marionettes perform Scheherazade and Petruschka. The marionettes were incredibly life-like, and the performance ranged from poignant to humorous. The music was performed by two pianists, one of which tended to conduct the other. This is usually irritating to the pianist on the receiving end!

The next night, we saw two local theater groups join together to perform Sondheim's Into the Woods at The Village Playhouse in Mount Pleasant. In this musical, Sondheim follows up on the problems that may have arisen after the "happy ever after" endings of stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and Jack and the Beanstalk. This also ranged from poignant to humorous.

Some of the performances during Spoleto happen in Dock Street Theater, which is one of the nation's oldest performance spaces.