Candy Williams stories

Ann Dunlavy is inviting visitors to “Come to the Dark Side.” Dunlavy is president and general manager of Lincoln Caverns in Huntingdon, a tourist attraction that has been a part of her family since it was discovered in 1930 and purchased by her grandfather, Myron Dunlavy Sr. of Buffalo, N.Y....

Spring officially arrives March 19, marking the end of a cold Western Pennsylvania winter and the beginning of warmer, sunnier days. If ever there was a good time for swapping the “winter blues” for blue skies, this is it. With schools canceled and many parents working from home during the...

Seeing Actors and Artists of Fayette County’s production of “The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged” is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. No, really, it’s a one-time, never-see-it-like-this-again show. Director Andrew Johnson of Donora said that’s because the play written by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield that parodies the plays of...

Four Pittsburgh actors play characters that are an integral part of the search for answers behind a mysterious mathematical proof in Riverfront Theater Company’s production of David Auburn’s drama, “Proof.” The play that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play is the story...

Twenty-five antiques dealers representing eight states will set up shop March 13-15 at Oakmont Country Club for the 16th annual Kerr Memorial Museum Antique Show. The show and sale featuring furnishings, fine arts and decorative pieces from the 18th to 20th centuries is the major fundraiser for the Oakmont museum...

The musical “The Band’s Visit” isn’t the kind of stage spectacular — with big production numbers, massive colorful sets and glitz-and-glam costumes — that typically wins awards on Broadway. But surprisingly it did, capturing 10 Tony Awards in 2018, including Best Musical, and the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Musical...

Over nearly four decades, The Duquesne Light Pittsburgh Home and Garden Show has grown to be the place to go before shopping for improvements or new additions to the home. John DeSantis, the show’s executive director, has been leading the charge in providing the people to help make those projects...

Irwin native Mandie Russak has frequented the Kit Kat Club before, where she welcomed visitors as the Emcee in a previous production of “Cabaret” by Split Stage Productions in 2017. She returns to the seedy night spot as the unforgettable Sally Bowles, an English cabaret performer during the rise of...

A game of Dungeons and Dragons holds the key to secrets about a deceased relative in Qui Nguyen’s contemporary play, “She Kills Monsters,” being performed Feb. 28-March 8 at The Theatre Factory in Trafford. The play focuses on a young woman, Agnes Evans, trying to come to terms with the...

Seton Hill University typically performs a classical work during its season in an effort to expose a variety of literary examples to its theater students. When Steven Wilson was asked to direct Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 18th century comedy of manners, “The Rivals,” he knew he faced a challenge. “‘The Rivals’...

Carmella Salem and Michael Alberter, co-owners of Carmella’s Plates and Pints on East Carson Street, South Side, know how to beat winter’s chill with a hearty bowl of homemade soup. They also know how to beat the competition in two out of four categories in the South Side Soup Contest,...

Stevin John credits his 2-year-old nephew for convincing him to give up his job as a camera operator in the Los Angeles film industry to carve out a career teaching and entertaining young kids via the internet. “I’d sit and watch him viewing the low-quality children’s videos on YouTube and...

Neil Simon’s original “The Sunshine Boys” on Broadway featured Sam Levene as Al Lewis and Jack Albertson as Willie Clark, two stubborn ex-vaudevillians – formerly partners in a comedy-duo – who haven’t spoken to one another in many years. In other versions of Simon’s play, the 1975 feature film had...

A classic Broadway musical with a lot of heart is a perfect Valentine’s Day weekend treat on stage Feb. 13-16 at Geyer Performing Arts Center in Scottdale. Neil Simon’s “Sweet Charity,” directed by Rachael Szabo and Tyler Handford of Connellsville, features Vanessa Clarke-Deaver of Greensburg as hopeless romantic Charity Hope...

A romantic dinner at an upscale restaurant with that special someone might be a nice way to celebrate Valentine’s Day — but it’s oh, so predictable. With the holiday of love just around the corner, how about considering something entirely different this year? Maybe a little offbeat, even a little...

Split Stage Productions is tackling an award-winning contemporary musical that explores how a suburban household copes with crisis and mental illness. For Laura Wurzell of Delmont, who is directing the show being staged Feb. 7-15 at Greensburg Garden and Civic Center, the story offers the chance to meld together two...

Two performances of the most loved songs from the movies — including classics like “Over the Rainbow,” “Pennies from Heaven” and “Whistle While You Work” — will warm a winter evening for audiences at “Hollywoodland: Songs From the Silver Screen.” The musical production, being presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust...

Riverfront Theater Company celebrates Valentine’s Day with the musical revue, “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” Feb. 12-15 at Aspinwall Riverfront Park. The show covers all the bases of love — from first dates to marriage, from children to “the twilight years” — set in a series of vignettes...