The 2022 fall season preview: The arts world readies to be back in full swing

The first Covid-era fall arts season last year was a mixed blessing. It was a relief to see stages again filled with performances and galleries opening new in-person shows. But live attendance was significantly down nationally due to the pandemic, and that trend did not escape Atlanta.

Still, after Covid closed down almost the entire in-person 2020-21 season, the arts world surging back at something close to full throttle was a victory within itself. The show went on, even though productions and exhibits were still affected by the ongoing pandemic. Some productions were postponed, and some performances were canceled because of Covid outbreaks.

The hope is that the pandemic will continue to diminish in impact, and allow for both a safe and thriving fall season and beyond.

And it promises to be a great season, marked by the departure this month of Susan V. Booth after 21 years as artistic director of the Alliance Theatre and the arrival of Nathalie Stutzmann as the new music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Here are some of the highlights of the fall 2022 season as selected by the ArtsATL editorial team. Also, see our Six Artists To Watch for the fall season.

MUSIC

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Nathalie Stutzmann era formally begins on October 6 when the new music director takes the baton to lead the musicians and the vaunted ASO Chorus on one of the classics: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. The Symphony Hall performance also includes “Words for Departure,” a contemporary choral work by Hilary Purrington, and Beethoven’s “Ah! perfido.” The soloists include soprano Talise Trevigne, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, tenor Robin Tritschler and baritone Leon Košavić. Stutzmann is only the second woman in history to lead a major American orchestra, and electrified audiences in her recent appearances as guest conductor.

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Back in 1980, when the Athens music scene was just emerging, it was inconceivable that local bands such as the B-52s and R.E.M. would be part of the national consciousness nearly 45 years later. But both groups became stars and R.E.M. became known as arguably the greatest American rock band of its generation. The B-52s, also known as “The World’s Greatest Party Band,” is in the midst of a farewell tour that will culminate November 11-13 at the Fox Theatre. The current lineup features original members Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson.

R.E.M. has been out of action since 2011, but gone does not mean forgotten and the band’s music will be featured at an Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert September 30 and October 1 with R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills on stage. “R.E.M. Explored” is a world-premiere work that features the band’s music arranged for full orchestra by Carl Marsh and David Mallamud. The orchestra, led by conductor Sarah Hicks, will perform the work. Then Mills will join the orchestra along with Macon violinist Robert McDuffie to perform his eponymous Concerto for Violin, Rock Band and Orchestra.

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The Atlanta Opera presents its production of the classic Madama Butterfly at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre November 5-13. Atlantan Nina Yoshida Nelsen will perform the role of Suzuki. But beyond what’s expected to be a first-class version of a beloved opera, the company is using it as an opportunity discuss the racial undertones of the piece. It was written in 1904 by three European men and, as the opera notes on its website, Madama Butterfly “reaches our modern ears and understanding in a different way.” The opera will produce a series of events and community conversations in partnership with such groups as the Japan American Society of Georgia to think critically about a work that is magnificent but also steeped in racial stereotypes.

More music highlights:

The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta celebrates its 30th anniversary of free concerts, featuring over 60 concerts on the Emory University campus and other locations across the city . . . The Concerts@First series begins its season on September 16 with a benefit concert for Ukraine at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta; performers include The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet, the Vega Quartet and organist Victoria Shorokhova.

Spivey Hall’s 32nd season will feature violinist Joshua Bell, whom many believe is the greatest American violinist alive, for a September 30 performance with pianist Peter Dugan . . . The Atlanta Chamber Players opens its 47th season October 23 and the Georgian Chamber Players opens its season with a concert on November 20 . . . Atlanta’s Orchestra Noir teams with rap legend Rick Ross for the U.S. debut of Red Bull Symphonic, melding hip-hop with classical music at a November 4 concert at Symphony Hall.

THEATER

The Alliance Theatre has paid the rent many times over with A Christmas Carol. So you can imagine the appeal for Atlanta’s biggest stage company of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Everybody, in which the happy character with the same name as the title runs into Death and then goes on a journey through his past to discover the Meaning of Life. Running through October 2, Everybody wasn’t inspired by Charles Dickens, however, but instead by a 15th century morality play, Everyman. In keeping with life’s random plot twists, performers draw names on stage each night to determine which actor will play each character. Departing Alliance Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and Associate Artistic Director Tinashe Kajese-Bolden co-direct.

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Theatrical Outfit boldly launched its new season on September 7 with a co-world premiere (along with Fayetteville, Arkansas’ TheatreSquared), Flex, about high school girls hoops players in the Deep South dreaming of becoming WNBA pros. The characters in this ‘90s-set play move with swagger and determination, sticking together to navigate being young, Black and female in rural Arkansas. Candrice Jones’ script debuted as part of Theatrical Outfit’s Downtown Dialogues reading series in 2020. “There is authenticity, grit, and grace in how these young women navigate these challenges,” Theatrical Outfit Artistic Director Matt Torney says. “And Candrice doesn’t let anyone off with easy answers.” Through October 2.

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Before it dives into its 35th season later this fall, Actor’s Express belatedly wraps up its 2021-22 season with the pandemic-delayed Sunset Baby. Opening September 24, Dominique Morisseau’s 2013 drama is about a lousy parent looking for redemption and a fraught reunion between a father and daughter. The action revolves around the desire of Black Liberation activist Kenyatta Shakur to recover a packet of love letters written to him by his late wife when he was in prison. Morisseau (Detroit ’67, Paradise Blue, Pipeline, Skeleton Crew) is a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient. In its review of Sunset Baby, the Chicago Tribune said the playwright was “becoming a crucial American writer.” Through October 16.

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More theater highlights:

In Kenneth Jones’ comedy-drama Alabama Story, a controversial children’s book about a black rabbit marrying a white rabbit stirs up a segregationist State Senator and a no-nonsense librarian in 1959 Montgomery, when the Civil Rights movement was gaining steam. Georgia Ensemble Theatre stages what it calls “a uniquely poetic love letter to reading” (September 8-25) . . . Broadway Across Atlanta opens its season with the national tour of Pretty Woman: The Musical at the Fox Theatre (September 13-18) . . . Out of Hand Theatre, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and other partners present another in the activist troupe’s series of Equitable Dinners Atlanta, pledging to bring together 5,000 people to break bread at 500 tables across the city on September 18. The meals-with-dialogues mark the 116th anniversary of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riots. The theme: “Better Me. Better We. Better World.” 

Horizon Theatre will premiere Designing Women, the Play, an Atlanta-set update by the creator of the 1980s-1990s hit TV show, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. The run is September 30-November 6.

ART+DESIGN

The inaugural Atlanta Art Week, September 29 through October 2, is a jam-packed citywide event that encompasses guided tours, exhibit openings, talks, panel discussions, open studios, sneak peaks and more. Highlights are tours of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Coca-Cola Company collections; opening receptions at galleries such as Mason Fine Art, Swan Coach House, September Gray Fine Art, Arnika Dawkins Gallery and more; artist talks at THE END Project Space and Day & Night Projects. In total, 13 galleries, seven institutions — among them MOCA GA, the High Museum of Art and Museum of Design Atlanta — and cultural organizations such as Art Papers and Flux Projects are participating. Check the website for updates.

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Todd Murphy is the much-loved, immensely influential Atlanta artist who got away. The latter part of his career was spent in New York City, but during the 1990s he was a giant in the Atlanta art world, influencing other artists, directors, curators and collectors. Many of his large, instantly recognizable paintings can be seen around Atlanta, for instance at the Two Urban Licks restaurant. The Bill Lowe Gallery launched Murphy’s career with his first solo exhibition in the early ‘90s and now represents Murphy’s estate. (The artist died in 2020 at the age of 57.) This fall, the Lowe Gallery will present WINK, the first major exhibit of the artist’s work since his passing. WINK is a body of work, much of it never before seen, featuring Black jockeys and their role in the early days of horse racing. The paintings challenge the relationship of Black identity and labor in the South through the history of the sport. October 7 through November 4.

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Deana Lawson at the High Museum of Art is the first museum survey dedicated to the artist. Working primarily in photography, Lawson investigates and challenges conventional representations of Black identities and bodies. Her work evokes a range of photographic histories and styles, including family albums, studio portraits and staged tableaux; she also employs documentary pictures and appropriated images. In her staged tableaux, individuals, couples and families are pictured in intimate domestic spaces and public settings. Her images are intended to channel broader ideas about individual and social histories, sexuality and spiritual beliefs. Lawson’s practice is global in scope, as she creates her work throughout the African diaspora in locations as varied as Brooklyn, Haiti, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the American South. October 7 through February 19, 2023. 

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More art and design highlights:

Also at the High Museum (opening September 16) is Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place. The African American designer explores ideas about domesticity during a time of worldwide upheaval . . . The High will also feature Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern with sculptures and works on paper encompassing many of Rodin’s best-known compositions, including The Thinker, Monument to Balzac and The Kiss (opening October 21) . . . The first posthumous exhibit of work by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, the revered artist from Iran known internationally for her geometric mirror sculptures, opens at the High November 18.

At Atlanta Contemporary, photographer Gillian Laub’s exhibit Southern Rites tells a story about 21st century young people in the South and asks: can a new generation liberate itself from a traumatic past to create a different future (opening September 22) . . .  Wesley Harvey’s solo exhibition I’m down on my knees, I wanna take you there” will open October 8 at Signature Contemporary during Atlanta Pride. Harvey’s ceramics champion the exuberance, indulgence and communal nature of the queer experience. The group exhibit The Gravity of Beauty at the Zuckerman Museum of Art includes work by Rona Pondick not seen in Atlanta for decades (through December 10) and The WADDI art gallery features Outdoor Worship, a one-man show by outsider artist Harry Underwood (through October 29).

DANCE

Urban Bush Women hasn’t visited Atlanta for 11 years, so its performances October 20-22 at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts are worth checking out. Known for amplifying the voices of women of color, the 38-year-old company will perform Legacy + Lineage + Liberation, a program comprising four classic works and one created this year. Give Your Hands to Struggle (1998) is a spiritual tribute to the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement; I Don’t Know, But I Been Told, If You Keep on Dancin’ You Never Grow Old (1989) celebrates Black neighborhoods and includes stepping and street dance. 

The company will also perform their signature work Girlfriends (1986), an excerpt from Women’s Resistance (2008) and Haint Blu (2022), inspired by the color that Southern families used to paint their front porches to ward off bad spirits. 

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Atlanta Ballet’s first full season since 2019 opens September 16 with a mixed bill of three neoclassical works, among them the Atlanta premiere of Justin Peck’s In Creases. The company’s new accompanist and music administrator, Western-Li Summerton, and guest pianist Dr. Rachel Chung, chair of the Music Department at Spelman College, will play Philip Glass’ Four Movements for Two Pianos live for the ballet, bringing to fruition Artistic Director Gennadi Nedvigin’s mission to have live music at every performance.

Peck created In Creases in 2012 for the New York City Ballet, marking the beginning of his hugely successful career. He is now resident choreographer at City Ballet, a worthy heir to George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. He also choreographed Steven Spielberg’s 2021 movie West Side Story. Rounding out the program are Kiyon Ross’ Sum Stravinsky and Balanchine’s beautiful, iconic Serenade. September 16-18, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.

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More dance highlights:

For the Fall for Fall Dance Festival, choreographer/dancer Catherine Messina has put together an inspiring three evenings of dance, each in a different venue and featuring more than 30 choreographers, most of them Atlanta-based. (October 28-30) . . . glo will premiere Free Bird Being (in process), a new experience with an ensemble of intergenerational women in Symphony Hall October 23 . . . Kit Modus kicks off its sixth season of contemporary dance September 24 at the Emory Performing Arts Studio.

Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre will re-stage one of its signature works, Lore, October 21-30. It is an evocative piece that looks at the legacy of family, and will be performed outdoors at the Wildflower Meadow in Serenbe . . .  A Time With Isadora on September 29 will feature Isadora Duncan-inspired solos choreographed by José Limón and premieres from Atlanta dance makers Carolyn Stine McLaughlin, Douglas Scott and George Staib . . . Georgia Ballet will offer Peter Pan October 6-9 at the Jennie T. Anderson Theater in Marietta and Nathan Griswold, co-founder of Fly on a Wall, will present his work-in-progress Tile November 4-6 at the Windmill Arts Center. And yes, Virginia, there will be Nutcrackers. Lots of them.

BOOKS

The Decatur Book Festival returns on September 30 with a lineup of authors headlined by former Chief White House photographer Pete Souza. The next day, the festival will host 16 panels of authors, including former television news anchor John Pruitt, Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich, AJC writer Ernie Suggs, Vanessa Riley, Carmen Deedy and others. There will be panels on travel, graphic novels, children’s books, social justice and historical fiction. The festival, presented in partnership with Emory University, started in 2006 and has grown into one of the largest independent book festivals in the country. 

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The annual Book Festival of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta will host more than 40 authors November 3-20 and will be highlighted by a talk with Andrew Young and AJC writer Ernie Suggs about the book The Many Lives of Andrew Young. Other authors participating in the festival include Melissa Rivers (Lies My Mother Told Me), Bernie Marcus and Catherine Lewis (Kick Up Some Dust), Ira Rosen (Ticking Clock), Jon Meacham (And There Was Light) and Tova Friedman (The Daughter of Auschwitz).