Delaware Theatre Company artistic associate David Stradley is everywhere. He coordinates DTC’s Young Playwrights Festival and Connections events, facilitates talkback nights at the theater and helps plan each year’s season. This month Stradley will direct William Nicholson’s “The Retreat from Moscow.” Though the title refers to Napoleon’s military retreat, it serves as a metaphor for one man’s attempt to deal with his parents’ separation after 33 years of marriage. “The play takes a very complex and painful situation and delivers it in a humane and sympathetic way,” Stradley says. The father’s obsession with military history and mother’s love of poetry provide much of the tone and language of the play. The three characters are drawn richly. Gut-wrenching and humorous, the story is written simply. Don’t retreat—charge to Wilmington to experience great drama January 24 through February 11. For more, call 594-1104, or visit
www.delawaretheatre.org. —Megan M.F. Everhart
Squiddly Winks
We’re familiar with aquatic fantasies — mermaids, the Bermuda Triangle, “Waterworld” and the lost city of Atlantis. This month, meet a fantastic ocean creature that’s actually real when “In Search of the Giant Squid” comes to the Delaware Museum of Natural History. Giant squid live in all the world’s oceans, though scientists aren’t sure where. And because one has not been seen alive in its natural habitat, almost everything we know about the bus-sized invertebrates has been learned from dead specimens that have washed up on shore. Now anyone can join in the quest to discover more about the most mysterious creatures of the deep. “In Search of the Giant Squid” will run January 20 through April 29. For more, call 658-9111, or visit www.delmnh.org.
Piano Man
We’ve seen him all over Delaware—on billboards, in ads and, most of the time, with his back to us as he conducts the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. This month lucky audiences will see maestro David Amado in a new way—playing Shostakovich’s Piano Trio in E Minor with violin and cello live in the Hotel du Pont’s Gold Ballroom on January 23 as part of DSO’s chamber series. Amado received his bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Juilliard School before going on to study orchestral conducting at Indiana University. In his three years with the DSO, Amado has put together amazing seasons, with innovative performances that combine musical insight and thematic elements so that audiences aren’t hearing a mere collection of works, but experiencing a full artistic event. Amado is also known for bringing rising talent to the DSO as guest artists. During Amado’s chamber concert at the hotel, guests may enjoy champagne and delicacies from the kitchens. Full symphony concerts in the current season include “Humanism Redux,” “Minimal and Modern” and “Memorials and Mirrors.” For more, call 652-5577, or visit www.desymphony.org.
A little bit of Louisiana will visit Kent when Zydeco-A-Go-Go brings its foot stompin’, hand clappin’ blend of Cajun
two-step, New Orleans rhythm and blues and good
ol’ rock ’n’ roll to the Smyrna Opera House on January 20.
We don’t know how they got to be from Philadelphia,
but the five-members get audiences up and dancing
throughout the country. Dance along to the accordion and rubboard—the instruments that give Zydeco its unique sound. Call 653-4236, or visit www.smyrnaoperahouse.org.
