By Koo Hwangbo
A brief look at what Workhouse Arts Center, The Torpedo Factory, Synetic Theater and more have planned for their fall seasons:
Art
The Greater Reston Arts Center brings in New York City-based multimedia artist Shih Chieh Huang this fall to show off his sculptures made out of everyday objects and influenced by deep-sea phosphorescent creatures (through Nov. 19). Workhouse Arts Center presents Prison (Re)Form, a commentary on incarceration in the past and present, on land that was occupied by prisoners in the early 20th century (through Nov. 27). The Torpedo Factory exhibits The Greatest Show of Earth: Clay Circus, in which animals with four feet are presented as clay sculptures (Oct. 3-30), and Never Forget, a solo photography exhibition that explores the journey from sorrow to renewal after 9/11 (through Oct. 16). Torpedo Factory is also opening its 2016 Post-Graduate Residency Exhibition. The Waddell Art Gallery of Northern Virginia Community College displays Viable Patterns, a collection of mixed media paintings that celebrates the beauty of our observations of life (through Oct. 28). At the Principle Gallery, artist Gavin Glakas will be doing a live painting during his solo exhibition showcasing scenic works from Brooklyn to Tuscany (Oct. 14-15).
Theater
Workhouse Arts Center presents Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show (Oct. 7), a wild cult-classic musical that tells the story of a newly engaged couple who gets stuck in a storm and meets an interesting mad scientist, and A Broadway Buffet (Nov. 19-20) as part of its Workhouse Cabaret Series, where the audience is welcomed to their dining tables to enjoy a cornucopia of music. The Torpedo Factory along with Through the 4th Wall is performing A Dream Within A Dream: Madness, its award-winning interactive play (through Oct. 31). Synetic Theater takes on a wordless adaptation of Dante’s Inferno (through Oct. 30). George Mason University’s Center for the Arts puts on Analogy/Dora: Tramontane, a breathtaking story about a Holocaust survivor (Oct. 14), and Mason’s School of Theater and Music presents The Laramie Project (Oct. 13 & 15) at Hylton Performing Arts Center. The Virginia Opera is celebrating its 25th season at the Center for the Arts with a double bill of The Seven Deadly Sins and Pagliacci (Oct. 8 & 9). Reston Community Players will perform Gypsy, based on the famous burlesque artist Gypsy Rose Lee and her mother (Oct. 21-Nov. 12). Lastly, The Castaways Repertory Theatre will be performing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a story of the family of wealthy cotton tycoon Big Daddy Pollitt. And a story of seduction in a small Virginia town at the end of The Great War is MetroStage’s adaptation of Ruth P. Watson’s romantic thriller, Blackberry Daze (through Oct. 9).