The Improv Vikings offer a workshop Sat. at the Fox & Hound  (Allie Doten photo)

Numerous film and stage events are taking place across the Lake Norman region this weekend, beginning with Thursday night’s opening of the Davidson Community Players presentation of “Leading Ladies” at the Duke Family Performance Hall. The Rusty Knox Band plays a Davidson Concert on the Green Sunday. And the weekend’s film offerings include an outdoor “boat-in” screening of “Rise of the Guardians” on Lake Norman and Davidson Film Club’s “Gigante.” Read on for more highlights of this weekend’s calendar. Read the full story

Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council (ASC) has announced an initial round of $6.8 million in grants for projects and organizations around the region, including operating support for the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville, the Community Arts Project in Cornelius, and Davidson Community Players. The ASC gave $5,000 each for a public art sculpture at Davidson’s Roosevelt Wilson Park, a new arts outreach program at Cornelius Arts Center, and for the annual Hello Huntersville festival.

Other grants went to the Cornelius Youth Orchestra, North Mecklenburg Community Chorus, Music at St. Alban’s in Davidson, downtown Davidson’s April is for Arts, Circle de Luz,  Davidson College and Lake Norman YMCA’s after school program. Read the full story

Davidson Community Players opens its next summer production this week, “Leading Ladies,” Ken Ludwig’s comedy about two male actors who hatch a plan to pass themselves off as the nieces of an elderly woman to inherit her money. Also this week, Davidson Community Players’ Connie Co. youth theater holds auditions for “King Lear.” Read the full story

Cast of “The Pajama Game,” which wraps up this weekend at Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall. (Bill Giduz photo)

By CONNIE FISHER

Move over Harry Connick Jr.: A new star is shining on the Davidson Community Players’ stage this summer. From his opening note in, “A New Town is a Blue Town,” audiences this month are being treated to the beautiful, strong voice of Bill Caswell. He has the lead role of Sid Sorokin, the newly hired superintendant of the Sleep-Tite pajama factory Davidson Community Players’ production of “The Pajama Game.” Read the full story

Meredith Swanson (Babe) and Bill Caswell (Sid) star in “The Pajama Game.”

Davidson Community Players’ first big summer production,  the Tony Award winning musical “The Pajama Game,” opens Thursday, and runs through June 29 at Davidson College’s Duke Family Performance Hall. This musical comedy features many familiar tunes including “Steam Heat,” “Hey There” and “Hernando’s Hideaway.”

Based on the novel “7 ½ cents” by Richard Bissell, it features a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. Amid labor strife in a pajama factory, love blossoms between Babe, the grievance committee head, and Sid, the new factory superintendent.

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From left, Aaron Marsh, Brody Galloway, and Emily Dyckman are among the cast of “Treasure Island”

Davidson Community Players’ Connie Company youth theater will present a stage version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” April 13-21 at the Armour Street Theatre. The show was adapted for the stage by Charles DeWald and is being directed by Vito Abate. Read the full story