Thursday, February 13, 2025

Air guitar competition to raise funds for local theater company

All competitors are encouraged to bring the ‘airness’ — an air guitar competition Big Dawg Productions is hosting ahead of its first show of the season, also titled “Airness,” by Chelsea Marcantel. (Courtesy Big Dawg)

WILMINGTON — When it comes to striking the right chord — or pretend chord, as the case may be — on massive guitar solos, one local theater company is asking competitors to step up to the stage.

Big Dawg Productions, which hosts six shows a year at Thalian Hall Ruth and Bucky Stein theater, is hosting a fundraiser to help pay for the first show of the upcoming season. On Jan. 14, 7 p.m., it will host an air guitar competition at local rock venue Reggie’s 42nd St. Tavern.

All folks are encouraged to enter, but especially those who can bring the “airness”  — the quality of a performance transcending the imitation of guitar playing into an art form.

The charitable rock show prefaces Big Dawg’s first production of the season, “Airness,” by Chelsea Marcantel. The play, to be staged at Thalian on Feb. 9-19, centers around air guitar competitors who tap into their inner rockstar, yet also highlights community-building.

The Master of Ceremonies will be Sean Brinkley, frontwoman for the local country-rock outfit Sean & Her Dilemma. The band will headline the competition — performing on their actual instruments.

Brinkley, along with the play’s director Jace Carlyle Berry, the artistic director Steve Vernon and local rock players will round out the judges.

“It’s quirky, something fun, different, maybe even a little off the wall,” Zach Peschl BD’s vice president, said. “That’s what we do at Big Dawg, something different, even if it’s ‘Waiting for Godot.'”   

Tickets and competition entries are $10 and can be purchased in advance here or at the door.

Tickets for “Airness” and the rest of Big Dawg’s 2023 season are on sale here.

[Ed. note: The piece has been updated to correct Big Dawg stages six, not eight shows a year. PCD regrets the error.]  


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Shea Carver
Shea Carver
Shea Carver is the editor in chief at Port City Daily. A UNCW alumna, Shea worked in the print media business in Wilmington for 22 years before joining the PCD team in October 2020. She specializes in arts coverage — music, film, literature, theatre — the dining scene, and can often be tapped on where to go, what to do and who to see in Wilmington. When she isn’t hanging with her pup, Shadow Wolf, tending the garden or spinning vinyl, she’s attending concerts and live theater.

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