Fall arts preview

Coming soon to a stage near you: Productions of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “As You Like It,” “The Little Shop of Horrors,” “Spring Awakening” and “Madame Butterfly.”

Add in a Rogers and Hart classic, Oktoberfest, art exhibits featuring the work of Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali and one very famous leg lamp, and you’ll have some idea of what’s on tap for Lynchburg’s arts scene this fall.

Here are some events to keep an eye out for:

Thursday, Sept. 22
-- Nelson County’s Hamner Theater is opening David Mamet’s “A Life in the Theatre” at 7:30 p.m.

The play, which has often been called a love letter to theater, tells the story of two actors in a repertory company, one older and one younger. Other performances are at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23, 24, 29 and 30 and Oct. 1 and 2 p.m. Sept. 25 and Oct. 2. Tickets are $15. Call (434) 361-1999 or visit www.hamnertheater.com for more information.

-- Hollins University art professor Robert Sulkin will give a gallery talk during an opening reception for his Sweet Briar College exhibit, “The Constructed Image.” The reception runs from 4:30 to 6 p.m., and the exhibit remains up through Dec. 4. (434) 381-6248, www.sbc.edu.

-- Liberty University will also open a new exhibit, “Impressions: Plein Air and Studio Paintings by L. Diane Johnson,” with a reception from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Johnson is best known for her oil, acrylic and soft pastel work painted in the Impressionistic tradition, but this show will also feature some of her highly realistic works. The show will remain up inside the Student Life and Academic Building through Nov. 5. (434) 582-2111.

Friday, Sept. 23 
-- Liberty University’s production of “Oklahoma!” opens at 7:30 p.m. in the Tower Theater. Other performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24, 30 and Oct. 1, 13, 14 and 15; 2:30 p.m. Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 and 16; and 2 p.m. Oct. 1 and 15. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for faculty, staff and seniors and $8 for students. (434) 582-7078, www.liberty.edu.

Saturday, Sept. 24 
-- Wintergreen Performing Arts will celebrate Oktoberfest from noon to 5:30 p.m. in the Evans Center. The event, which they’re billing as a family event in a beer garden setting, will feature German food (brats, wursts, kraut and more), microbrewery beers and traditional “om-pah” band music from the Shippensburg Blaskapelle. Tickets, only sold at the door, are $20. (434) 325-8292, www.wintergreenperformingarts.org.

Sunday, Sept. 25 
-- The Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra opens its 28th season with “The Civil War 150,” a musical event marking the start of the conflict 150 years ago, at 3 p.m. in the E.C. Glass auditorium. Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, $5 for students and free for children 12 and younger. (434) 845-6604, www.lynchburgsymphony.com.

Thursday, Oct. 6 
--  Lynchburg College and The Academy of Fine Arts are teaming up for a production of Rogers and Hart’s “Babes in Arms,” a musical that inspired the movie version starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, at 7:30 p.m. in the Academy’s Warehouse Theatre. Other performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7 and 8 and 2 p.m. Oct. 9; tickets are $22 for adults, $19 for seniors, $13 for students and $5 for LC students, staff and alums. (434) 846-TIXX or www.AcademyFineArts.com.

-- Randolph College will also kick off its theater season with a production of Neil LaBute’s “Reasons to Be Pretty” at 7:30 p.m. Other performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 7, 8 and 10 and 2 p.m. Oct. 9. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for RC faculty, staff, alums and seniors and $5 for students. www.LynchburgTickets.com.

Saturday, Oct. 8 
-- The 21st Annual Virginia Wine & Garlic Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Amherst’s Rebec Vineyards. The event includes entertainment on five stages, more than 150 specialty food vendors, artists and crafters, a garlic cook-off and more. The festival also runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 9. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the gate for tasters and $14 in advance and $20 at the gate for non-tasters. Children 12 and younger get in free. (434) 946-5168, www.rebecwinery.com.

Monday, Oct. 10 
-- E.C. Glass Theatre will open its 2011-2012 season with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at 7:30 p.m. in the school’s north courtyard. Other performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 11-14. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for children. (434) 522-3712, extension 3511, www.ecglasstheatre.org.

Tuesday, Oct. 18 
-- “Treasures of World Art from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts — 75 Years of Collecting: Goya, Dali and Others” will open in Lynchburg College’s Daura Gallery with a reception at 4 p.m. The statewide, traveling exhibit also features the work of Andy Warhol, Dutch artist Jan Weenix, contemporary photorealist Robert Cottingham and British master John Constable. (434) 544-8343, www.lynchburg.edu/daura.

Thursday, Oct. 20 
-- Lynchburg College’s theater department opens “Almost, Maine,” set in a fictional town where residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected ways, at 7:30 p.m. Other performances are at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 and 22 and 2 p.m. Oct. 23. All tickets are $5. (434) 544-8349, www.lynchburg.edu/theatre.

Friday, Oct. 21 
-- Lynchburg singer/songwriter Paddy Dougherty is teaming up with Nashville’s Tom Kimmel, who has written songs for the likes of Johnny Cash and Randy Travis, for “Lynchburg Meets Nashville,” an evening of music at the Academy of Fine Arts. The performance is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are $19 for adults, $16 for seniors and $11 for students. (434) 846-TIXX, www.AcademyFineArts.com.

Saturday, Oct. 22 
-- Jefferson Forest High School will present Neil Simon’s “Rumors” at 7:30 p.m. Other performances are set for 2:30 p.m. Oct. 23 and 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 and 25. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for students and seniors. (434) 525-2674, www.LynchburgTickets.com.

Thursday, Oct. 27 
-- Sweet Briar College opens Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” at 7:30 p.m. in the Babcock Fine Arts Center’s Murchison Lane Auditorium. Other performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 and 29 and 2:30 p.m. Oct. 30. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, $5 for students and free for children younger than 12 and members of the Sweet Briar community. (434) 381-6120, www.LynchburgTickets.com.

Friday, Oct. 28 
-- The “Little Shop of Horrors” is coming to Liberty University. The play, one of the longest-running off-Broadway shows of all time, opens at 7:30 p.m. in the Tower Theater. Other performances are at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 29 and Nov. 4, 5, 11 and 12; 2:30 p.m. Oct. 30 and Nov. 13; and 2 p.m. Nov. 5. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for faculty, staff and seniors and $8 for students. (434) 582-7078, www.liberty.edu.

Saturday, Oct. 29 
-- The Sedalia Center’s 15th Annual Chili Cook-Off, in which four-person teams face off to win the titles of Best Tastin’ Chili, Best Presentation and People’s Choice, kicks off at noon and features a performance by Work Release. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the gate. (434) 299-5080, www.sedaliacenter.org.

Friday, Nov. 4 
-- Sweet Briar College will present “Out of Silence,” a dramatic reading of works from the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, at 8 p.m. in the Murchison Lane Auditorium. Journalist, writer and humanitarian Masha Hamilton, founder of the project, will present a related lecture and slide show at 8 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Elston Inn Conference Center’s Wailes Lounge. Admission to both events is free. (434) 381-6236, www.sbc.edu.

-- The same night, Renaissance Theatre will open the farce “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” Other performances are scheduled for Nov. 5, 6, 11-13 and 17-19. Tickets are $17 for adults, $15 for seniors and $13 for students and children. (434) 845-4427, www.renaissancetheatre.info.

Friday, Nov. 11 
-- Bedford’s Little Town Players presents the stage version of “A Christmas Story” at 8 p.m. in the Elks National Home Theatre. Other performances are set for 8 p.m. Nov. 12, 18 and 19 and 2 p.m. Sept. 13 and 20. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for children 12 and younger. (540) 586-5881, www.littletownplayers.com.

Sunday, Nov. 13 
-- Opera on the James presents Puccini’s tragedy “Madame Butterfly” at 3 p.m. in the E.C. Glass Auditorium. (434) 528-3397, www.operaonthejames.org.

Tuesday, Nov. 15 
-- E.C. Glass Theatre presents “Liberty Smith: An American Musical,” about the man who was a childhood friend to George Washington, an apprentice to Ben Franklin and was linked to Paul Revere’s ride, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Studio Theatre. Other performances are at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16, 17, 18 and 19 and 2:30 p.m. Nov. 19. (434) 522-3712, extension 3511, www.ecglasstheatre.org.

Thursday, Nov. 17 
-- Randolph College presents the Tony-winning musical “Spring Awakening” at 7:30 p.m. Other performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18, 19 and 21 and 2 p.m. Nov. 20. Tickets are $13 for general admission, $10 for Randolph faculty, staff and alumni, $10 seniors and $5 for all students. www.LynchburgTickets.com.