Engaging new play, ‘Feel the Spirit,’ soars at Shotgun Players
In this inventive production, written by Noelle Viñas for Zoom, a young gay Latina pastor tries to hold her congregation together through the coronavirus and a racial uprising.
Actors in Zoom play “Feel the Spirit” by Shotgun Players. Photo: Leanna Keyes
Shotgun Player’s new Bridge Series begins with the creative and engaging world premiere, “Feel the Spirit.” The inventive play was written by Noelle Viñas expressly for Zoom. It is astutely directed by Elizabeth Carter, and is shown live. “Feel the Spirit” follows a young gay Latina pastor, Gabriella (terrific Vero Maynez), trying to hold her congregation together during the early days of the lockdown through the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
Paul Nelson
Charlotte County restaurant and venue Leroy s Southern Kitchen & Bar is set to include Grammy-winning guitarist Paul Nelson among its live music lineup this week. Nelson played in the band of and produced albums for guitar icon Johnny Winter, winning a Best Blues Album Grammy for Winter s posthumously released 2014 record Step Back, which also topped Billboard s blues album charts and won the Rock Blues Album Blues Music Award. Nelson has produced and performed on several other musicians records, as well as releasing 2016 s Badass Generation with his own band. 8 p.m. today; Leroy s Southern Kitchen & Bar, 201 W. Marion Ave., Punta Gorda; 941-505-2489; leroyspg.com
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I think the word for 2020 was ‘pivot’,” Deesha Philyaw says with a bemused laugh.
Last year was shaping up to be a very big one for the East End author. The anthology “Tender,” a collection of writings by Black women in Pittsburgh that Philyaw co-edited with Vanessa German, had recently been released. The Bridge Series, a popular reading series that weds literary events with social activism, which she co-directs, was about to begin its final season. And the cherry on top: Her debut collection of short stories, “The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” (West Virginia University Press) was scheduled to be published in September.
Damon Fowler Band
Englewoods on Dearborn, a restaurant that also hosts music by national and local blues acts, is set to feature Florida s own Damon Fowler this week. The guitarist, singer-songwriter and former Anna Maria Island resident released his last album “The Whiskey Bayou Session” on Tab Benoit’s Whiskey Bayou Records and plans this year to release his new record Alafia Moon, sharing a name with the Hillsborough County river and community. Fowler has also played in the Dickey Betts Band, and in the supergroup Southern Hospitality with Grammy-nominated pianist Victor Wainwright and fellow Floridian bluesman J.P. Soars. 7 p.m. today; Englewoods on Dearborn, 362 W. Dearborn St., Englewood; $7; 941-475-7501; englewoodsondearborn.com