PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

Midweek Stuff To Do: March 23, 24

There’s always cool stuff going on here in Charleston, and this week we have a bounty of coolness.There’s great music and Theater in which to parktake. Just look…

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1934056_10208994540727561_6806908197098384295_nOpening Thursday, March 24 is the return of the Dan Kehde comedy Bert Hellmunn Fights The Demons Of The Stage. During its debut a few years back I described it as a “brilliant commentary about the struggle between art and commerce.”

This Contemporary Youth Arts Company production follows the life of fictional plawright Bert Hellmunn as he and his agent consistently snatch commercial success from the jaws of artistic substance by creating such hits as “The Bare Facts”, “The Porn Shop Murders” and “Fluff”, to name but a few. Utilizing a split stage and only a few set pieces, Hellmunn quips his way through fifty years of growing tastelessness in the American stage, beginning with the dismal reading of his first, outlandishly dark drama in the basement of a Manhattan men’s store in the early 60’s, through the nudity of the seventies, the nostalgia of the eighties, the vacuousness of the nineties, patriotism of the 2000’s and, finally, theater goers current love affair with digital technology

Curtain is 8 PM on Thursday March 24, Friday March 25, Saturday March 26, and Thursday March 31, Friday April 1, and Saturday April 2. This producation takes place at CYAC’s home base, the WVSU Capitol Center Theater, 123 Summers Street, Charleston. Tickets are available at the door or by calling the WVSU Capitol Center Box Office at 304-342-6522 during regular business hours. Admission is $8 for Students, $15 for adults.

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