The Little Foxes
October 10-18, 2008

Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble
November 7, 2008

A Christmas Carol
December19-21, 2008

Los Cenzontles
(The Mockingbirds)
February 7, 2009

Rob Denty:
Interpreting Mercer
March 6, 2009

Hot 8 Brass Band
March 22, 2009

Heartbreak
by Rob Nixon
[NEW DATES]
June 11-14, 2009

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The Little Foxes
by Lillian Hellman
Friday & Saturday, October 10 & 11, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 12, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.
Thursday & Saturday, October 16 & 18, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
(PLEASE NOTE: No performance scheduled for Friday, October 17)
$15 adults, $10 students & seniors

Lillian Hellman’s enduring American drama caused a sensation when it first opened on Broadway in 1939 and again as a film in 1941.  Revived many times throughout the decades, this play set in the early 20th century South still rings true today with its story of a family in conflict, fighting each other and the world around them for wealth, power, and a sense of fulfillment.  These are the themes that take center stage in GIAHA’s original production under the direction of Rob Nixon (who brought Happy Days and Fahrenheit 451 to the Ritz stage), an approach that makes for exciting, living theater rather than a mere exercise in period nostalgia.

The cast includes both local actors and professionals from Atlanta: Robin Bloodworth (GIAHA’s productions of A Christmas Carol and Ah, Wilderness!), Kelly Dobbin (Fahrenheit 451), Terence Jenkins, Alex Atwood, Ben Daley, Dorothy Bell, Sara Thompson (Ah, Wilderness!), and Heather Heath (Happy Days, Ah, Wilderness!, Shame the Devil, Private Lives) as Regina Giddens, a role made famous on stage by Tallulah Bankhead and on film by Bette Davis.  Together they create a compelling portrait of a complex, fascinating and potentially deadly world.  This is live theater the way you love it—sharply written, wonderfully acted, highly entertaining and bracingly relevant to our contemporary lives.

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Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble
Friday, November 7, 2008
8:00 p.m.
$20 adults, $15 students & seniors

For more than 25 years, this amazing ensemble has been delighting audiences the world over with its bright, infectious programs of percussive dance and traditional bluegrass music. Featuring clogging from Southern Appalachia, stepdances from Ireland, England, and Canada, and hamboning, hoofin', and early jazz tap of the American South, Footworks comes to the Ritz with its signature work, "Incredible Feets.”

The troupe features six dancers and three musicians who play fiddle, banjo, bass, mandolin, and guitar.  A favorite of the national and international festival circuit, the company remains true to the traditions of Southern Appalachian music and dance while celebrating connected roots and branches. Each principle artist adds to the authenticity of Footworks’ presentations by bringing his or her own cultural background in traditional arts.

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A Christmas Carol
Friday-Saturday, December 19-20, 2008
8:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
3:00 p.m.

A beloved holiday tradition we all look forward to year after year.  It’s Charles Dickens’ familiar tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and the spirits who teach him the true meaning of Christmas, in an all-new production. Young and old alike, whether you’ve heard the story a hundred times or never before, you’ll want to share this funny, spooky and always pertinent holiday show with family and friends.

And RitzPass holders get a free ticket to opening night!

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Los Centzontles (The Mockingbirds)
Saturday, February 7, 2009
8:00 p.m.
$15 adults, $10 students & seniors

While the entire community is reading To Kill a Mockingbird for The Big Read, GIAHA is proud to present some birds of a different feather! Los Cenzontles (aka The Mockingbirds) is a group of artists that has pioneered the revival of Mexican roots music for almost two decades, promoting cultural expression, pride and understanding. Fronted by three powerful and evocative singing voices and mixing electric bass and drums with traditional Mexican instruments – jarana, vihuela, requinto, pandero and quijada (jawbone) – Los Cenzontles creates a powerful contemporary sound infused with the gutsy soul of Mexico’s rural roots music, a fresh Chicano voice for a new generation.

This performance features four distinct styles of regional Mexican music, each with its unique instrumentation:  Traditional Mariachi, Son Jarocho of Veracruz, Tex-Mex Conjunto, and Pirecuas and Sones of Michoacan. You can expect to hear some wonderful original songs by the group members as well.

Lovely vocal harmonies, understated traditional instrumentation,
a repertoire stretching from Aztlan to Veracruz to Cuba to Colombia,
sharp percussion blended with somesharply-executed zapateado footwork,
and outstanding turns on reeds and violin. – Folk Roots Magazine

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Rob Denty: Interpreting Mercer
Friday, March 6, 2009
8:00 p.m.
$15 adults, $10 students & seniors

After a great homecoming in our Jazz in the Park 2008 season, Brunswick native Rob Denty and his Chicago-based quartet come to the Golden Isles once again for this nostalgic tribute to one of the great American singer-songwriters. Savannah’s Johnny Mercer grew up imbued with the music of the South, and over his long career as a composer and lyricist was responsible for such unforgettable hits as One for My Baby, Jeepers Creepers, That Old Black Magic, Moon River and dozens more.

Rob's interest in Mercer has been strongly influenced by their shared southern roots and Mercer's iconic status in our region. In Interpreting Mercer, Rob Denty and his ensemble (consisting of saxophone, piano, bass, and drums) interject their own unique personalities and influences to bring to glorious life the times and the music of this amazingly talented Son of the South.

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Hot 8 Brass Band
Sunday, March 22, 2009
3:00 p.m.
$15 adults, $10 students & seniors

The Hot 8 Brass Band has epitomized New Orleans street music for over a decade.  The band plays the traditional Second Line parades, hosted each Sunday afternoon by Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, infusing their performances with the funk and energy that makes New Orleans music loved around the world.  The members of the Hot 8 Brass Band were born and raised in New Orleans and many began playing together in high school. What makes the Hot 8 so special are the sounds they coax from their well-loved, well-worn horns.

Members of the Hot 8 Brass Band have toured in Japan, Italy, France, Spain, Finland, England and Sardinia. The band performs annually at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, world and jazz festivals across the US and Europe, and were featured in the Spike Lee documentary When the Levees Broke. The group has also been part of an important relief project following Hurricane Katrina. SAVE OUR BRASS! is a local grass-roots project that has brought music and instruments to shelters, temporary trailer parks, and communities across the Gulf Coast.

This is a great chance to experience a remarkable and undying tradition.  Join us for this very special Sunday matinee.

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Heartbreak
Thursday-Saturday, June 11-13 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 14 at 3:00 p.m.
$10 adults, $5 students & seniors

GIAHA is proud to present an original production of a play written by our very own Rob Nixon, the story of a group of people in a coastal Southern town in the summer of 2001 struggling to come to terms with the topsy-turvy lives they’ve created. Loosely inspired by Heartbreak House, George Bernard Shaw's social comedy of English society on the eve of World War I, this modern story looks at similar themes: the follies of a cultured leisure class blind to the possible destruction looming just over its head. But Heartbreak also exhibits a decidely 21st century approach, as it questions how to live authentically in a world where fiction and reality are harder and harder to separate.

Heartbreak is staged in a multi-media format that incorporates live actors, video/film segments, and music to illuminate the themes and story in a highly thought-provoking and entertaining way. Audiences who enjoyed our September 2007 production of Fahrenheit 451 for The Big Read won't want to miss this show. And those who didn't see the earlier production should plan to come to Heartbreak to experience this unique and exciting staging, directed by Rob and Heather Heath.

The cast features local talents Alex Atwood, Jack Conyers, Benjamin Daley, Kelly Dobbin, Heather Heath, and Rob Nixon, and Atlanta actor Dikran Tulaine who appeared on the Ritz stage several years ago in A Streetcar Named Desire.

This is thoroughly contemporary theater, at once comically absurd and movingly real. Rob’s distinctive writing voice has been seen and heard on stages throughout the U.S., and we’re thrilled to be presenting his work right here on his home turf!

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