TROY News Center

MONTGOMERY—An award-winning musical showcase from Branson, Mo., The Rankin Brothers Classic Music Revue, will come to Montgomery for one night only with a performance at Troy University’s Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts on Friday, March 8, at 7 p.m.

Voted “Branson’s Best Show” the last three years and “Best Tribute Show 2011,” The Rankin Brothers Classic Music Revue includes tributes to famous musicians from many eras including Elvis, The Beatles, George Strait, John Denver, Roy Orbison, Neil Diamond, Elton John and Sonny and Cher.

Backing the Rankin Brothers is an all-star cast featuring three award-winning female vocalists, The Rankinettes, and their multi-talented All-Star Band. The show has received more than 20 awards in the last four years and features timeless classics from rock ‘n roll, country, folk and gospel.

Single tickets for the performance are on sale now and range in price from $25-$50. Balcony tickets for this show and the remaining shows in the season are buy one get one free while supplies last.

To purchase tickets, contact the theatre office at (334) 241-9567. Tickets may also be purchased online for an additional fee on the “Subscriber Series” page of the website: www.troy.edu/davistheatre.

The Davis Theatre is located in downtown Montgomery at 251 Montgomery Street. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. to noon.

The Rankin Brothers performance is sponsored by the Alabama Gazette and Viamedia.

The 2012-2013 Season at the Davis Theatre will continue on Thursday, March 28, with the TROY Symphony Band Salute to Dr. Johnny Long.

TROY--Troy University’s Department of English will present readings by poet Alice Friman, Georgia’s Author of the Year Award winner, on Feb. 20 and 21 in Montgomery and Troy.

The Montgomery Campus event will be held in the Rosa Parks Museum auditorium on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at 7 p.m. Friman will be on the Troy Campus in the Hawkins Hall auditorium, room 122, on Thursday, Feb. 21, at 4 p.m.

Friman is Poet-in-Residence at Georgia College in her hometown of Milledgeville, Ga., and her most recent poetry collection is “Vinculum” (LSU Press). She won the 2012 Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry and is a recipient of a 2012 Pushcart Prize, along with numerous other awards for her literary creations. She has been published in fourteen different countries and a new collection, “The View from Saturn,” is forthcoming from LSU Press in 2014.

She also has a podcast series entitled “Ask Alice” which is sponsored by the Georgia College MFA program and can be seen on YouTube.

“I first met Alice 19 years ago at one of her readings,” said Dr. Patricia Waters, assistant professor of English on the Troy Campus. “She has this remarkable ability to capture the attention of her audience, through her voice, her message, and her personality. She meets students on their level and brings them into art, awakening them both to the possibilities of art and to what it can do, and they can do through it.”

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information about the Montgomery reading, contact Dr. Sara Kosiba at (334) 241-9792. For the Troy reading, contact Dr. Patricia Waters at (334) 670-3301.

MONTGOMERY—The New Shanghai Circus, an internationally recognized troupe of Chinese acrobats, aerialists and athletes, will bring their stage spectacular to Montgomery for one night only during a performance at Troy University’s Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m.

Featuring a beautifully orchestrated presentation of Chinese circus arts, the New Shanghai Circus combines entertaining acrobatics with show-stopping choreography, spectacular costumes and ancient and contemporary theatrical techniques to present a show of breathtaking skill and spellbinding beauty.

Single tickets for the performance are on sale now and range in price from $25-$50. To purchase, contact the theatre office at (334) 241-9567.

The Davis Theatre is located in downtown Montgomery at 251 Montgomery Street. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m. to noon.

The New Shanghai Circus performance is sponsored by Cumulus and the Confucius Institute at Troy University.

The 2012-2013 Season at the Davis Theatre will continue on Friday, March 8, with the Rankin Brothers.

The New Shanghai Circus, an internationally recognized troupe of Chinese acrobats, aerialists and athletes, will perform at Troy University's Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. Single tickets for the performance are on sale now. To purchase, contact the theatre office at (334) 241-9567.

Troy University’s Vocal Jazz Ensemble, frequency, will be performing twice in Pike County during the month of February, the first of which will take place Thursday night at Studio 116 in Brundidge.

Thursday’s concert will begin at 7 p.m. Studio 116 is located at 116 South Main Street.

“My colleagues, Chris Rich and Sara Dismukes, have invested their time and energies into creating a wonderfully vibrant and very cool artist space on Main Street in Brundidge, and we are looking forward to performing an eclectic set there,” said Diane Orlofsky, director of University Choirs and founder and Artistic Director of frequency.

The 14 voices of frequency, along with the instrumental combo, will perform jazz arrangements of familiar pieces such as Scarborough Fair and the Beatles’ Come Together, lesser-known jazz pieces such as the Pat Metheny piece, Travels, and Waters of March.  The performance also will include duets and solos featuring songs of folk and blues origins.

“I like to program something for everyone and this concert is no exception,” Orlofsky said.

Two weeks later, frequency will perform in another local studio setting. The ensemble will take the stage at The Studio, 300 E. Walnut St. in Troy, on Tuesday, Feb. 19. The performance will begin at 7 p.m.

“Both performance spaces offer an intimacy with the performing artists; the kind of performance venue that serves the goals of frequency well,” Orlofsky said. “The students enjoy this art form and spend long hours trying to perfect their blend and their vision of what the music should convey. Singing in frequency is a very collaborative music-making experience for these young musicians and they emerge much better listeners and vocalists as a result of their participation.”

Members of frequency are:

• Alyson Stroh
• Jordan Ratliff
• Stephanie Washburn
• Dillon Worley
• Blake Eubanks
• David Caddell
• Carlton Copeland
• Melanie Sims
• Amy Griffin
• Hannah Moore
• Ashley Horton
• Aaron Wine
• Daniel Murphy
• Cody Irwin
• Tyler Logan (keyboard and vocals)
• Wendy Cho (keyboard)
• Garrett Brown (guitar)
• Johari Harris (percussion)
• David Barnes (bass)
• Stephen Kreitemeyer (sound)

Troy University Vocal Jazz Ensemble. frequency, will perform two concerts in Pike County in February, including Thursday night's performance at Studio 116 in Brundidge.

MONTGOMERY—Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum will celebrate Rosa Parks’ 100th birthday on Monday, Feb. 4, with an evening of art, poetry, and an official unveiling of the new Parks commemorative stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.

The celebration event will be held at 6 p.m. inside the Gold Room on the second floor of Whitley Hall at TROY’s Montgomery Campus. Admission is free and open to the public.

The evening’s events will include:

•      • National Book Award-winning poet Nikky Finney will read her poem “Red Velvet,” which is about Rosa Parks.
•      • Dr. Riche’ Richardson, an associate professor at the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University, will present a lecture entitled “Rosa Parks at 100.” A native of Montgomery, Richardson’s essays have been published in numerous journals such as “American Literature” and “Mississippi Quarterly." Her first book was “Black Masculinity and the U.S. South: From Uncle Tom to Gangsta,” and she has a book in progress exploring black femininity in the South.
•      • Museum Director Georgette Norman and Curator Daniel Neil will present the “Rosa Parks 100th Birthday Wishes Project.” For several months, the museum has collected more than 1,400 “wishes” for the future of the city and nation inspired by Parks’ life work from local students and other individuals. Many of these “wishes” have been turned into a series of silk screen posters, which will be presented to local elected officials and leaders for display around Montgomery.
•      • Bridgett Carol, Director of Marketing for the U.S. Postal Service Alabama District and Donnie Snipes, Postmaster for Montgomery, will unveil the new Rosa Parks commemorative stamp, one of several unveilings happening nationwide this day. 

For more information about this or other museum events, contact Museum Director Georgette Norman at (334) 241-8608, or  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .