Guster is an alternative rock band known for its live performances, unique sound, and cult following. Band members Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner and Brian Rosenworcel met during freshman orientation at Tufts University in 1991. Recently, a fourth band member, Joe Pisapia, was added to the line-up.

Guster independently recorded their first album in 1994, entitled Parachute. With dedicated fans, word of mouth about the band spread, and now Guster tours large concert venues. Their sound is similar to Dave Matthews Band, The Disco Biscuits, moe., Phish, and Widespread Panic. Despite a string of Top 40 hits, such as Fa Fa, Amsterdam, and Happier, the band still remains underground. Ganging Up On The Sun is the fifth studio album by the rock band. It was released on June 20, 2006.

We met with Adam Gardner and Brian Rosenworcel before their performance at Wolf Trap's Filene Center in Vienna, VA.

Guster
Wolf Trap

Everyman Theatre is starting off its Explore series for the 2007-2008 season with a riveting production called Naked featuring the award-winning slam poet Gayle Danley. This production is directed by James Bunzli who has worked with Gayle in forging together this unique theatre experience based on her works. Artworks This Week audiences remember Gayle as one of our favorite returning guests and this is an opportunity for us to experience first-hand the electric power of her performance in live theatre.

Naked will be at Everyman Theatre through September 25, (running in rep fashion with Everyman's mainstage season opener, Sight Unseen by Donald Margolies, which continues through October 7.)

Everyman Theatre
Gayle Danley

This week's Salon Art is by Jo Smail, the winner of the Trawick Prize, Bethesda's Contemporary Art Award. After teaching English for years, Ms. Smail changed her focus and chose to pursue fine arts. Good choice. Her work has shown in venues across the globe, from South Africa to New York. She even had a residency at Rochefort-en-Terre, the notable artist's retreat in France that Artworks featured this summer. It is important to her for others to understand what she is trying to convey in her work. She states: "After a stroke, which left me completely unable to communicate, I became preoccupied by how communication or meaning occurs. So I juxtapose contrasting elements, empty and full, geometry and the organic, dark and light, soft and hard, word and image. ...Black spills of paint are my way of making sounds."

Ms. Smail's artwork is on view at Creative Partner's Gallery located at 4600 East-West Highway. The exhibition runs Sept. 4th through Sept. 28th. Gallery hours are Tues. - Sat., 12-6pm. For more information, call 301-215-6660.

Trawick Prize: Bethesda's Contemporary Art Award
Jo Smail Website

The Wedding Singer, the hit movie starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, has been adapted to the live stage in a bright musical which charmed Broadway audiences and is now on national tour. Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre, part of the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, welcomes The Wedding Singer this week in a run which lasts through September 23. Rhea welcomes the stars of this production, Merritt David Janes and Erin Elizabeth Coors, to Artworks This Week to talk about the production.

Hippodrome Theatre

On ArtChat This Week, Nate and Rhea discuss Leon Fleisher, the truly gifted Baltimore-based pianist, who is among the recipients of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors in December. Other recipients include Steve Martin, Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. The 30th Anniversary of the Kennedy Center Honors Awards will be broadcast on Dec. 26th. The Baltimore Opera Company is proud to announce that it is one of the first opera companies in the country to add “choose your own seat” to their company website. Patrons can log on and select their own seat from the electronic seating chart. And as long as your surfing along the net for art-related topics, go to the new blog on the Walters Art Musuem website and check out the thoughts of museum director Gary Vikan. Every Wednesday, he discusses arts and cultural issues and welcomes your comments.

The Baltimore Opera Company
The Walters Art Museum