Outdoor Shakespeare classic set in WWII

By Dan Collins
Posted on July 05, 2022

If you’re a fan of comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his eponymous 90s TV “show about nothing,” chances are you’ll enjoy William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, performed by the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC) outdoors among the ruins at PFI Historic Park in Ellicott City, Maryland. Viewed from a 21st century perspective, Much Ado offers inspiration for many a Seinfeldian... READ MORE

Betty White shines in coffee table book

By Lynn Elber
Posted on June 20, 2022

A photo of the late Betty White, with dimpled smile and guileless gaze, filled the cover of a coffee table book that was published a month before her 100th online pharmacy buy seroquel no prescription with best prices today in the USA birthday, just days before her death on Dec. 31, 2021. The image on the cover of Betty White: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life... READ MORE

Stories of loss and survival come to life

By Glenda C. Booth
Posted on June 16, 2022

Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes seeking safety from Russia’s February 24 invasion, and many have huddled underground across the country. Their experience reminds us that the Virginia Holocaust Museum’s core exhibit is especially relevant during these troubled times. Located in Shockoe Bottom, the museum opened in an unadorned former tobacco warehouse in 2003. Its main... READ MORE

Sixty years since high school? Can’t be!

By Bob Levey
Posted on June 10, 2022

The letter was so upbeat, it almost chirped. “Come back!” it urged. “Relive All Those Great Memories! Bask in the Glow!” It was an invitation to my 60th high school reunion. Gulp. Wince. Run fingers through white hair. Have 60 years really passed? They have. Are most of my classmates still alive? They are. Are most of them planning to attend? They are. Am I... READ MORE

Honoring lifelong volunteers for service

By Beacon Staff
Posted on June 09, 2022

Since 1998, Montgomery County, Maryland, has bestowed the Neal Potter Path of Achievement Award on selected older adults, honored for their lifelong commitment to volunteer work. The awards, named after former County Executive Neal Potter, are co-sponsored by the Montgomery County Commission on Aging and the Beacon Newspapers. This year’s winners are Judge Chung K. Pak and Charlotte... READ MORE

Painter captures Richmond Symphony

By Catherine Brown
Posted on June 07, 2022

For the past few months, a special visitor has attended the Richmond Symphony’s rehearsals in the Dominion Energy Center for the Arts. Situated in front of his easel, local artist Matt Lively, 50, has been painting images of one of Richmond’s celebrated artistic institutions. Lively began attending rehearsals after Amy Burhman, the Symphony’s assistant director for marketing and ... READ MORE

Older authors reminisce in their memoirs

By Dinah Rokach
Posted on June 01, 2022

The Bibliophile Three accomplished older adults in diverse professions focus on notable aspects of their lives in their fascinating memoirs. On Juneteenth, by Annette Gordon-Reed, 152 pages, Liveright hardcover, 2021 In this anthology of six essays, historian Annette Gordon-Reed, who is in her early 60s, describes her childhood in the Lone Star State and her experiences in the... READ MORE

Wilder classic ‘Our Town’ still resonates

By Lynda Lantz
Posted on May 31, 2022

Thornton Wilder once said, “I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions.” His most widely produced play, Our Town, aims to remind us of our universal humanity. Sometimes, however, what some imagine to be folks-writ-large is merely the perspective of a specific group of people. Can Wilder’s fictional Grover’s Corners, New... READ MORE

Dorothy’s lost dress from ‘Oz’ up for sale

By Deepti Hajela
Posted on May 19, 2022

It’s one of the most recognizable outfits in American movie history: the blue-and-white checked gingham dress a young Judy Garland wore as Dorothy in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. For decades, one of the versions of the dress Garland wore in the movie was assumed lost at Catholic University of America, where it had been given to someone in the drama department in the early... READ MORE

Since her teens, a force for great music

By Timothy Cox
Posted on May 16, 2022

When Baltimore music columnist Rosa Pryor-Trusty was a teenager, the famed Nat King Cole gave her a nickname that endures today. “Our band was on tour in New York, and he noticed that I was a bit antsy and impatient while waiting around in the studio. He then dubbed me a ‘Rambling Rose,’” she said in an interview with the Beacon. Rosa “Rambling Rose” Pryor-Trusty, now 77,... READ MORE