Dann Sytsma’s fixation with the word “crawlspace” led to the birth of an improv group that has become a fixture in Kalamazoo’s entertainment scene.

Four years ago, when Edye Evans Hyde started the Ebony Road Players, she didn’t know it would turn into a catalyst for social justice.

The Spectrum Theater, located on Fountain Street in Grand Rapids Community College’s campus, houses four theater troupes and is always bustling with activity. Managing all that activity is Michelle Urbane, theater manager. On top of managing the box office, Urbane directs and performs in shows and can always be seen running from one place to the next, always with a big smile on her face. 

Ready to board a plane for Mexico last May, recent Kendall College of Art and Design graduate Eana Agopian checked her email one last time.

Sara Daneshpour may be one of tomorrow’s stars. The Gilmore Rising Stars Series brings young and exceptional artists like the Iranian-American Daneshpour to Kalamazoo every year. First presented in 1999, the series features acclaimed pianists like Lang Lang, Jonathan Biss and Kirill Gerstein before they hit it big.

The word “spectacle” often follows Cameron Carpenter. Even when considering the sequined shoes, a $1.3 million traveling digital organ (that he designed himself) and his intellectual bravado, Carpenter insists those syllables should be rearranged to “skeptical” when referencing his work and persona. 

For artistic directors planning a theater’s season, there’s always a temptation to ride the coattails of an upcoming movie and schedule a stage version of the next potential blockbuster. But this can also be a trap.

Tomorrow, the smell of peonies, carnations, orchids and more will fill the halls of Grand Rapids Art Museum. Well, we don’t yet know exactly what flowers will be on display, but Art In Bloom is returning for the first time since 2015, bringing with it some can’t-miss events centered around the weekend exhibition.

After the sudden death of her brother during a hunting accident in 2002, metalsmith Renee Zettle-Sterling took an interest in how to channel grief and healing through the process of making art.

“Sell” rhymes with “hell,” something David Mamet never lets us forget in his 1984 Pulitzer Prize winner Glengarry Glen Ross, set in a Chicago real estate office that’s about as cheery and chummy as a vipers’ nest. With apologies to Arthur Miller, death for these salesmen would be a relief; they are trapped in a torturous, endless purgatory of backstabbing, back-biting and brow-beatings.