The-Burg.com - Central Virgina's Arts, Culture and Entertainment Weekly

The musical “The Last Five Years,” the latest from Lynchburg’s Wolfbane Productions, begins on a pretty bleak note.

Students in E.C. Glass High School’s advanced acting class are gathered in the Alumni Studio Theatre, a small black box space, debating the speed of a song from Mike Whorley’s “When We Get Grown.”

The group sings the song twice, at different speeds, and a couple students pipe in, most worried that the faster version will be too hard for audiences to understand.

“This is something you wouldn’t normally get to do,” director Jim Ackley says, looking over at the group. “They realize they have an input.”

Dean Anthony is a hands-on director if there ever was one.

During a rehearsal for Opera on the James’ upcoming production of “The Merry Widow,” he’s right in the middle of the action during a party scene early in Act II.

Anthony, the resident stage director for the Shreveport Opera, runs into the scene at various points to show the actors what he’s looking for. Op

The zombies have invaded Sweet Briar College.

During an evening rehearsal for the college’s upcoming dance concert, a group of students channel the creatures usually found in horror films.

Their clothes are torn and tattered. Their faces and arms are covered in bright red paint, their hair teased and wild-looking.

It was Professor Plum, in the conservatory, with the candlestick.

No, wait.

Maybe it was Miss Scarlet in the lounge with the revolver.