What was Old is News Again!
The Charlotte Observer has a new critic. I mean an old critic at the Observer has
returned. No, I mean... Well you'll just have to come to the May meeting and find out for
yourself. See side box for meeting details. JoAnn Grose wrote for the Charlotte Observer
from 1978-89 as JoAnn Rhetts. In 1988 she married Billy Grose and moved to his dairy farm
in the wilds of northern Iredell County (ask about the coyotes). Between then and now, she
has raised a third daughter and bushels of organic vegetables, learned to lay out pages
and write headlines, covered education and agriculture at the Statesville Record &
Landmark. Back in the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder, theater got JoAnn through high school
in the wilds of Turbotville, PA, after which she had a momentary lapse and went off to
Boston University to be a pre-med major, tossing aside a music theater scholarship in the
process. Sense and some other things prevailed, and after one semester at Bucknell
(Lewisburg, PA) as a biology major, she majored in English and theater and, finally, was a
Dean's List student. Along the way to a master's in theater, she discovered that the
queasy feeling in her stomach was caused, not by taking the Grad Records, but by the
impending arrival of daughter, Joanna, now 31, married and the mommy of the world's most
perfect baby, Adam, age 19 months. Back in those not-so-good old days mommies were just
mommies so she stayed home and made herself and Joanna miserable. Theater crept back
onstage in May 1971 when a friend was looking for someone to review "Tartuffe"
at Baltimore's Center Stage in exchange for tickets. One thing led to another, as they
always do, and by academic year 1977-78 she was at Stanford on an NEH Fellowship,
listening to Martin Esslin drop Pinteresque pearls of wisdom. From there, the long and
winding road led to The Charlotte Observer newsroom where the movie-theater critic had
recently decamped. In April she and the Observer team worked out a flexible arrangement
for her to return to the theater beat. She's thrilled to see how the Charlotte theater
scene is growing and changing.
Don't forget to pass on the good news of MTA membership to others. The more people we have
in the organization the better it is for everyone. So be a good ambasador for MTA, bring a
new member to the next meeting!
You can now purchase tickets online for Charlotte Rep @ www.charlotterep.org, for NC Dance
Theatre @ www.ncdance.org and for the PAC Broadway Lights Series @
www.performingartsctr.org. Contact a representative from the different groups to find out
how it's working. Your theatre might want to try it next.
Husband/best friend: Billy Grose. Daughters: Joanna Metzbower, 31; Alexandra Rhetts, 26;
Hannah Grose, 9. Reading, writing, flowers, horses, dogs, cooking, movies, photography,
music. Saw the Beatles in Shea Stadium, Artur Rubinstein at the piano, and Bruce last
month.
MTA's website has now moved to www.main.nc.us/openstudio/mta/index.htm. With the demise of Charlotte's Web, MTA has had to move to a server at Mountain Area Information Network in Asheville. The location of the server means no change in service to you. Just type in the new URL and continue to enjoy the MTA website.
