Get cheeky cheer at the Spiegeltent. Celebrate the Ashley Hall Christmas Play centennial. Take in a new view of Wadmalaw.
Maura's Three for the Week in Charleston, 12/9 - 12/15
As December accelerates its dizzying pace, I’m aiming to mix it up. I’ll be dashing from time-honored Charleston traditions to the more recent arrivals that are infusing the city with new charge.
I’ll check out offerings that are full-on holiday festivity, and take reprieve from the tinsel and treacle with some probing visual art. I’ll embrace productions with global elan, and go deep in the Lowcountry, too.
I’m also aiming to make it more personal with Three for the Week here and perhaps moving forward, sprinkling recommendations with my own ties when it makes sense to do so. That may mean offering a take on a show I’ve just seen, or my perspective based on years of cultural wanderings around Charleston and beyond.
It’s not just because I like to talk about myself (and, yes, I suppose I do). It’s that I’m hoping to foster exchange on what is striking you in the local cultural scene. That has always been my aim in leveraging my life and lens. Such candor may well lead to greater connections, a stronger community and an increased commitment to the arts.
I encourage you to chime in often and openly on what you’ve seen or want to. After all, when it comes to good lists, Santa’s got nothing on Culture South. While this one is admittedly a tad more curated, the list of subscribers includes more than a few of today’s most influential thinkers and practitioners. The list radiates from Charleston, but spans the South, travels the Eastern seaboard, wends West and swims across the pond, too.
So let’s keep the conversation alive — and always lively.
Enjoy Christmas cheer and cheek at the Spiegeltent
Charleston Gaillard Center, 95 Calhoun St., downtown Charleston, various times through Sat., Dec. 21.
On Saturday, I popped into Cabaret Royale, the work of Underbelly, a London-based cabaret group that produces a slew of shows at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. They now return to Charleston Gaillard Center for performances during the month of December at the Spiegeltent, the temporary, sparkly-splashy performance tent that is again beguiling culturati into this in-the-round rarity in these parts.
The setup in the crimson, bedazzled, mirror-shimmering fantasy land, a tent based on those that traveled Europe in the 1930s, is more than convivial. Audience members can first pop over to the bar to sip and chuckle at the cheekily cheerful, Brit-brimming good fun, which incorporates aerial feats, comic bits, sequin-spangled burlesque, sword-swallowing, step-dancing and more, all with a decidedly holly jolly flair.
As the troupe merrily bopped through Christmas jingles, had more than a few laughs and enthralled the audience with its deft weaving of skilled performers and easy vibe, the net gain was a convivial, easy-on-the-psyche entertainment that goes down well during the mad, mad, mad holidays. At the same time it infused the Gaillard with an urbane, worldly tenor—by way of its British roots, including a brief appearance by the dearly departed Queen of England herself, and an ensemble country-checking Ireland, France and farther flung locales. And, yes, there was some artful, eye-catching disrobing, complete with a human-sized martini glass. A jovial time was had by all at this rollicking, moderately racy addition to seasonal sojourns.
For tickets and information, click here.
Get elbows deep in the Lowcountry with a pair of photography shows
City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau St., downtown Charleston, with opening reception Fri., Dec. 13, from 5 - 7 p.m. and exhibitions up through Sun., Feb. 9
I’ve always looked forward to the latest art up at City Gallery, as well as their opening receptions that cut a swath through the visual arts world, drawing crowds that diverge and converge, depending on the the works displayed. This week’s tandem opening looks to be particularly resonant, as the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs presents two photography exhibitions that examine personal and cultural histories of the Lowcountry.
Calling Me Home: A Visual Ode to the Low-Country by Brooklyn-based photographer Marcus Middleton is a tribute, in more than 100 images, to his Southern roots, zooming in on Wadmalaw Island and its environs. “Crossing over Esau Jenkins Bridge is like going back in time. And I believe that nostalgia is medicinal,” Middleton said in artist statement. “This body of work is an attempt to express the gratitude I feel for where I grew up. I will forever be enamored with this place I call home.”
Children of Indigo by Caroline Gutman is a documentary project that explores the plant’s painful history in South Carolina and spotlights women in the Lowcountry today who have revived indigo cultivation and dyeing, building a flourishing community of textile artists and homesteaders. Her body of work shows the remaining historical sites in contrast with contemporary textile artists and farmers confronting indigo’s difficult past and reclaiming it.
For more information, visit the gallery website.
Celebrate the centennial of the Ashley Hall Christmas Play
St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, 405 King St., Fri., Dec. 13, 6:30 p.m.
This recommendation is particularly near and dear to me. I not only performed the role of an upstart shepherd in the Ashley Hall Christmas Play in my high school days and went on to direct it my senior year, my daughter Beatrice then took an early star turn as a little angel in first grade.
This year, the widely cherished annual retelling of the Nativity Cycle of the medieval Mystery Plays of Chester, England, celebrates its 100th production. First presented in 1924 by school founder (and suffragist) Mary Vardrine McBee, the ethereal pageant is powered by the school’s renowned Red Choir, and also includes nearly 120 students of all ages performing as angels, jesters, shepherds, the Holy Family and the Magi.
I can still recite my lines, and I am confident Beatrice’s winged nascent foray will remain with her through life.
For more information, click here.
Bonus: Go a-Beeple-ing at his Gibbes exhibition
Gibbes Museum of Art, Fri., 135 Meeting St., Dec 13 - Sun., April 27, 2025
Like many in the arts world, I’m still getting my head around Beeple, aka Mike Winkelman, and the implications of his galvanizing digital artists at his Charleston-based Beeple Studios in a cross between an artistic revolution and a wildly tricked-out man cave.
In 2021, he gained worldwide recognition after his NFT artwork EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS sold for a record-breaking $69 million at Christie's, a major coup for the crypto world. Since his work, particularly the generative sculpture HUMAN ONE, has been showcased in several prestigious museums, including the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas—the first U.S. institution to display this piece.
The Gibbes Museum of Art has now conferred additional status on the artist by featuring three of his latest kinetic sculptures in Gallery 1, 2 and 3. And, yes, I will surely be checking them out.
For more information, visit gibbesmuseum.org.